


Bits of a puzzle, fitting together

by blue_eyed



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-25
Updated: 2012-08-25
Packaged: 2017-11-12 20:41:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/495438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_eyed/pseuds/blue_eyed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started out as a friends-with-benefits situation. Hot sex with hot guys. No one expected feelings. Title from the song "Three Days" by Jane's Addiction. Written for paperlegends 2012</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my wonderful cheerleader, , who is the best cheerleading a needy writer could ever want. My amazing betas, and , who made this story so much better. Due to my own inability to time manage and leave things well alone, this has been fiddled with after they’ve looked at it, and so all remaining mistakes are my own.
> 
> And to everyone on my twitter feed and friends list who listening to me whine and complain. I couldn’t have done it without any of you!
> 
> Huge thanks to , who offered to do art for me at the last minute, and it’s so wonderful! Please go and check out her stuff, it’s amazing! 
> 
> Finally, , what an amazing mod! Thanks to you for organising this monster and being all round brilliant!

“Arthur, Merlin, come in.” Leon steps aside to let them into the house, “alright?”

“Good, thanks. Starving though,” Merlin says, hanging up his coat.

“Food will be done soon. Do you not feed him, Arthur?”

“He doesn’t, I’m wasting away, look.” Merlin holds his hands out from his sides. Arthur cuffs him on the shoulder.

“Ignore him, he’s delusional.”

“Are you actually coming to socialise with the rest of us or what?” Morgana’s voice comes from the direction of the living room.

“Coming, dear,” Leon answers dutifully, leading the way. It’s their monthly dinner, and this time it is Leon and Morgana’s turn to host. After leaving uni, the group of them had made a pact to have dinner together once a month, taking turns to host it. There were a few hiccups but they’d mostly worked it all out, and it was a success.

The others are already there - Gwen and Lance, Percy, Elena, and Elyan - and someone new.

“This is Gwaine,” Leon introduces the stranger. Gwaine offers a hand and grins widely. “He’s just reappeared after cruelly abandoning me for almost a decade.”

“I got a job!”

“In _Australia_ ,” Leon retorts, shaking his head. “Then, what? New Zealand?”

Gwaine nods and takes a deep breath. “Then, in no real order: Fiji, Indonesia, New Delhi, Florida, Cali, Amsterdam, Moscow, Edinburgh, and now finally, back in England.”

“What were you doing?” Merlin asks.

“Mainly farting about, doing whatever job I could get with some photography on the side.”

Arthur watches Merlin’s eyes light up as he asks, “Really? What photography do you do?”

“We’ve lost them,” Arthur says as he gives his sister a peck on the cheek. “Won’t get a non-photography word out of him all night.”

“I did think this,” Morgana says. “How are you, Arthur?”

“Fine, thank you. You?”

“Wonderful. You know where the drinks cabinet is, help yourselves.”

Arthur pours some wine (small for him, as he’s driving) and goes to sit next to Lance and Gwen.

“Hello,” Gwen greets him, smiling broadly.

“Hello.” He gives them both a hug and makes small talk. It’s been hard, keeping in contact with all his friends since leaving uni, getting a job and generally being an adult, but they’d managed pretty well.

The conversation is broken up by Morgana and Leon announcing that food was ready. Arthur catches up with Merlin discussing Gwaine’s lens choices for panoramic mountain views.

“I’d love to see your stuff sometime.”

“I’m living out of boxes at the moment, maybe after I’ve unpacked.”

“So never then,” Leon interrupts. “Gwaine is the worst procrastinator.”

“I just have different priorities.”

Leon just snorts and shakes his head.

Over dinner Arthur discovers that Gwaine also enjoys football - something which the other lads and Elena also jump on and quickly arrange a kick about, whilst everyone else groans and reaches for their drink. He even magnanimously forgives Gwaine for supporting QPR of all teams, instead of the obviously superior Arsenal. At least it isn’t as bad as Percy, who supports _Norwich_.

At the end of the evening, Merlin is sleepy-drunk, head lolling on Arthur’s shoulder.

“Come on, home time.” He stands up, and pulls Merlin with him. Merlin wakes up a bit, grumbling under his breath. They say their goodbyes, exchanging hugs and kisses. Gwaine claps them both on the shoulder.

“Good to meet you, see you around, yeah?”

“Yeah, next weekend, definitely.”

They pull on their coats and walk to Arthur’s car, shivering in the cold.

“Gwaine’s nice,” Merlin says around a yawn. Arthur smiles in response; Merlin loves meeting new people - he’s the sort to talk to people in lifts, queues, bus stops, literally anywhere.

“Seems a good bloke, yeah.”

~~~

The next Sunday dawns sunny, but with a crisp coolness to it. Arthur digs out his kit and starts texting the lads, ignoring Merlin’s pointed sleeping. He gets messages back off most of them, a combination of cursing him for being awake so early and agreeing to meet, only _later, man, a lot later_.

Arthur huffs and takes a shower, then makes his way to the corner shop to grab a paper. When he gets back Merlin has finally dragged himself out of bed, still sleep-addled and blinking owlishly against the brightness of the day.

“Morning,” he mumbles, leaning against the kitchen counter, waiting for the kettle to boil.

“Morning. You joining us today?”

“Yeah, can’t miss the opportunity to see you in tiny shorts, getting all hot and sweaty,” Merlin says, eyes comically wide and dreamy. Arthur spanks him with the newspaper, tutting, as he walks into the living room.

“Oo, kinky,” Merlin calls after him. “What time are we meeting them?” Merlin asks as he sits down on the sofa next to Arthur, handing over a mug of tea.

“About two, then we’ll come back to grab a shower and head to the pub for tea.”

“Sounds good.”

~~~

A couple of hours later, Arthur is jogging on the spot, trying to get his recalcitrant muscles warm up. Leon and Lance are doing stretches together and Gwaine is pulling off his jogging bottoms. Arthur can’t help but notice how firm Gwaine’s thighs look. Muscular, but not too much, like Percy’s are. Gwaine pulls his hair back into a ponytail and then sets off for a slow jog. They were all warmed up and impatient by the time Elyan and Elena arrived.

“Sorry, sorry,” Elyan pants. “Ellie’s car wouldn’t start.”

“Ridiculous thing,” Elena says, shaking her head. “At least we got a decent warm up getting here.”

Soon they had sorted out the ‘teams’ and were scuffling together on the makeshift pitch. Gwaine has his first run in with Elena, who, despite being a little flaily, manages to win the tackle, leaving Gwaine blinking in surprise on the floor. The game pauses for a minute as everyone is too busy laughing to be of any use.

“What just happened?” Gwaine asks, accepting Arthur’s hand up.

“Ellie. She’s deceptive.”

“She’s something,” Gwaine says, breaking out into a broad smile. “I can see why you  
were so happy she was on your side.”

“I was hoping it’d be a while before you ran into her - our secret weapon is no longer a secret,” Arthur says before jogging back to the centre to restart.

Arthur makes the first break, slotting the ball past Lance who had ran ahead to be a makeshift goalie. He almost gets flattened by a celebratory hug from Leon.

They call time after almost an hour. Arthur is exhilarated, adrenaline and endorphins flooding his body.

“Nice playing,” Gwaine says.

“Thanks.” Arthur claps him on the shoulder. “You weren’t so bad yourself.”

“Thanks, I try,” Gwaine replies, with a wink.

Arthur snorts in response, which makes Gwaine chuckle. Arthur turns and jogs over to Merlin, who is watching from the sidelines with Gwen and Morgana. He pulls Merlin into a kiss, laughing delightedly.

“Well done,” Merlin says, smiling broadly. Arthur knows he probably has no idea of the score but would’ve been watching anyway.

The other join them by the sidelines and agree on a time and a pub to meet at.

An hour later, they met at a local gastro-pub that offers a decent Sunday roast. Arthur’s hair is still wet, and he can feel it drip cold against the back of his neck, making him shudder.

Merlin looks at him, raising an eyebrow. Arthur just shakes his head, and Merlin turns back to the conversation. Merlin is pressed against him, arm warm against his. Despite his aching muscles - or maybe because his body is currently achy and feeling well used - there’s a warm feeling in his stomach, a tight not-quite-anticipation which will burn into arousal later. Given the small smile on Merlin’s face, Arthur can guess they’re on the same page.

~~~

They barely make it into the living room before Arthur pulls Merlin into his arms and kisses him. Merlin opens up, deepening the kiss, hands sliding down Arthur’s arms. They stand in the living room, just kissing. Arthur loves the muffled sounds Merlin makes as he slips his hands under Merlin’s t-shirt, stroking the warm skin there. Eventually Merlin pulls away and lifts his shirt off, dropping it onto the sofa.

“Come on, then. Take me to bed,” Merlin says, holding out his hand. Arthur takes it and leads him into their bedroom. The room is cold, and gooseflesh rises on Merlin’s arms.

Arthur kisses him again, hands stroking up and down his arms to bring some warmth back into the limbs. Merlin hums into Arthur’s mouth and starts unbuttoning Arthur’s shirt.

Clothes off, they rush under the bedsheets. Merlin clings to Arthur, putting his freezing limbs everywhere. Arthur shivers and rolls them over so Merlin is on top of him. Merlin squirms delightfully and Arthur spreads his legs to make room for Merlin to slot between them. Merlin thrusts against him, Arthur hums and flushes with arousal.

Merlin places kisses down Arthur’s throat, scraping his teeth along the stubble there. Arthur sighs and tilts his head back into the pillow, giving Merlin more access to his neck. He grunts as Merlin’s teeth dig into his collar bone, raising a bruise there. Merlin just smiles innocently up at him, before kissing and biting a trail down Arthur’s stomach.

Arthur watches as Merlin presses kisses into the base of Arthur’s cock. Arthur bites his lip as Merlin swallows Arthur down, eyes closing against the feeling of Merlin’s tongue caressing the length of his cock.

“Fuck,” Arthur says, opening his eyes and looking down his body to Merlin’s head. “You look so good, Merlin.” He runs a hand through Merlin’s messy hair, tugging it slightly. Merlin makes a noise in the back of his throat and looks up at Arthur, looking far too innocent considering he had Arthur’s cock down his throat.

Arthur wishes he could see Merlin properly, see his cheeks hollow as he sucks, see how his throat works. Instead, Arthur can barely keep his thoughts straight under Merlin’s tongue, the way his fingers curl around Arthur’s balls.

“I’d watch you do this all day, if I could.”

Merlin pulls off with a filthy slurp. “Could be arranged.”

Arthur chokes a moan.. “God, no, you’re too good. I’d never last,” Arthur sits up a bit and Merlin meets him halfway for a kiss. Arthur closes his eyes, picturing Merlin’s lips wrapped around someone else’s cock, someone else's hands fisting in his hair, all laid out for Arthur to see.

Arthur’s always been a bit of a voyeur, always loved watching Merlin’s reactions to whatever they do in bed. He’s thought about it before, having someone else in bed with them. His fantasies tend to alternate between wanting to watch Merlin with someone else - watching his long fingers curl around someone else’s cock - and watching Merlin fall apart under both Arthur and some other person’s hands and mouths.

“Someone else.” Arthur murmurs quietly, so quietly he’s not sure Merlin would hear. Then he feels Merlin stop, and Arthur wants to take them back, snatch the words out of the air.

“Someone else. You want - to what-”

“To watch, to watch you with someone else,” Arthur forces the words out, resisting the urge to put some physical distance between him and Merlin. He wishes he wasn’t naked.

“Why?”

“Because it would be - incredible. Seeing you do that, seeing you come apart - being able to watch you properly.”

“Oh,” Merlin says quietly.

“Listen, it’s not - it’s just a fantasy, yeah? Just some dirty talk, it’s not. I don’t need it, Merlin.”

“This is enough?” Merlin asks, gesturing between them. Arthur’s heart clenches.

“Yes, Merlin. This is more than enough.” Arthur leans forward and pulls Merlin up the bed, into a hug. Merlin moves but is stiff and doesn’t return the embrace. “I’m sorry. I love you.”

“I’m just surprised by it. I never expected you to want something like that . You’ve never mentioned...” he say quietly, trailing off.

“It’s just a fantasy, Merlin,” Arthur says, kissing his forehead.

“Still your fantasy,” Merlin points out. He’s not looking sad, just…shocked.

“It’s nothing. I love you, and I’m -” _not going to mention it again,_ Arthur thinks, “I’m happy - ecstatic - with what we have.”

“I love you,” Merlin eventually replies, relaxing and lying down next to Arthur. They curl up in bed together, eventually falling asleep.

~~~

Arthur buries the fantasy deeper this time. He wasn’t lying when he said it wasn’t something he needed.

He notices Merlin looking at him sometimes, clearly thinking. He’d asked about it once, and Merlin had just shrugged, saying he was wool-gathering.

Arthur makes sure to be affectionate, trying to reassure Merlin that he loves him. Merlin smiles softly at him after every act, and Arthur starts to relax, starts to go back to normal.

 

~~~

“You really want that,” Merlin says lightly, as they undress for bed. He’s been thinking about threesomes, sort of. Since the last time Arthur mentioned it, anyway.

Now that he’s had the space away from the vulnerability and immediacy of being naked and aroused to think about it - he’s not opposed to the idea. Merlin wants to know what it would be like. He’s thought about it, Arthur watching, hand around his cock as Merlin and some faceless person perform for him, and Merlin is definitely starting to like the idea.

He wants to talk to Arthur about it, now. He knows he didn’t react amazingly to Arthur opening up. He was surprised, Arthur had never mentioned wanting a threesome before. Merlin knows he’ll never get more details out of Arthur if he just waits for him to bring it up, so he’s got a plan to find out exactly what Arthur is thinking, and maybe throw some ideas of his own into the ring. He’d been unprepared last time, but now he’s ready.

“Hmm?” Arthur replies, pulling off his t shirt.

“A threesome,” Merlin says as he pulls off his socks, and balls them up.

“What? Merlin-” Arthur turns and looks at him.

“I mean, if we could, would you?”

“I said it wasn’t necessary, Merlin,” Arthur snaps.

“But I want to know,” Merlin says, standing up.

“Not if it’s going to ruin this.”

“I’m not going to leave you, or anything. I was shocked at first, yeah. But that was because I hadn’t had a chance to think about it.”

“And - now you have?”

“I’d like to hear more.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me,” Merlin says, lowering his voice. He realises this probably is the worst way to discuss any relationship issue, ever, but this is the only way he can see to get Arthur to open up without weeks of trying. This just seems easier, the most natural way to get Arthur to really talk about how much this turns him on.

Merlin approaches Arthur, who watches him warily. Merlin cups Arthur faces and tilts it up, slowly kissing him. Arthur responds, hands coming up to catch at Merlin’s hips. Arthur sits on the bed, and Merlin follows him eagerly.

Merlin grinds his hips down, feeling himself get hard at the friction. Arthur gasps and rolls his hips, and Merlin can feel him starting to relax into it.

“Tell me,” he breathes, wrapping his hand around both their erections. “Tell me what you want to see me do with this other person.”

“I want to see you fucked open, want -” Arthur chokes a groan. “Want to see you wrecked by them.”

Merlin starts pumping them steadily, shuddering.

“Would you just watch?”

“Don’t think I’d be able to stop myself from joining in.” Merlin closes his eyes and imagines being in bed with Arthur and someone else, another set of hands, another cock to fuck him. His hands get faster, more erratic. Pre-come eases the way. Arthur’s panting now, eyes squeezed shut as he starts to curl upwards. Merlin knows he’s close to coming.

“Would you - do stuff - to the other person?”

“Fuck, yeah, maybe, I-” Arthur thrusts upwards, coming all over Merlin’s hand. “Merlin, Merlin.”

Merlin strips his cock, using Arthur’s come to ease the way. He cries out as his orgasm hits, surprised by its strength. He leans down, burying his face in Arthur’s shoulder. They lie together, catching their breath.

“Merlin, what was that? I thought-” Arthur pulls Merlin’s head up, looking at him, shocked. “I thought you didn’t like the idea.”

“I - I had to see what you wanted - how much it turned you on,” Merlin says, biting his lip. “It was hot, watching you get turned on by it. You’re amazing, that was incredible,” Merlin says, voice low and soft.

“We can just do this,” Arthur says. “It can stay just as dirty talk. I don’t want you to pressure yourself.”

Merlin makes a noncommittal noise and shifts to lie next to Arthur. Arthur wraps an arm around him and pulls him close. Merlin smiles against his chest, happy with how his plan worked out.

~~~

Merlin can’t get it out of his head, now. Arthur was so turned on by it, it had been amazing - Merlin’s arousal had been heightened by Arthur’s, and the result had been incredible. It had definitely put any doubts Merlin had about whether he really wanted to do this to rest. Merlin wanted this, and now all he had to do was convince Arthur of that.

Merlin waits until they’re in bed again - it’s always easier for Arthur in the dark. Merlin knows he needs to broach the subject, that even though Merlin has already brought the subject up once before, Arthur won’t bring it up again for fear of pressuring or hurting him.

“If you wanted, we could start looking.”

“Looking for the first half of that statement? Might be useful,” Arthur replies, rolling over to face Merlin.

Merlin rolls his eyes. 

“Someone to have a threesome with. A third?” Arthur blinks at him, apparently shocked that Merlin wants this.

“I didn’t know if that was just - heat of the moment,” Arthur says warily.

“It wasn’t just that. I want it as well. God, it’d be so hot, Arthur, ” Merlin says fervently.

“I - I have no idea what to say. Are you sure, Merlin?”

“Yes,” Merlin says, moving to kiss Arthur. The kiss deepens into something slow and  
sloppy. Arthur hums into Merlin’s mouth, pulling him closer.

“You’re incredible, you know that?” he murmurs when they part for breath. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Merlin replies.

“You sure you want to do this?”

“If you are,” Merlin replies, smiling. “Assuming we can find someone we both like.”

“I’ve never actually got that far, to be honest,” Arthur admitted. “We’ll have to make a list of things to look for, I suppose.”

“I suppose,” Merlin echoes quietly. “And how do we even start looking? At a club? Or pub or something?”

Merlin can see Arthur recoil at the idea, face scrunched up. Merlin is pleased; he’s never been fond of hooking up with people at clubs, never mind any good at it. Arthur leans over and kisses him on the nose, and his face relaxes into a smile.

“Maybe not, then.”

“That leaves someone we know,” Arthur says.

“Yeah,” Merlin replies.

“Could be awkward,” Arthur says. “Who would we pick? I mean, everyone’s taken or straight. And generally not attracted to us. And we’re not attracted to them.”

“Yeah. I mean, Leon, for example, is great, but-” Merlin says, trying to picture anyone they know in their bed.

“Do not finish that sentence,” Arthur says, frowning as Merlin starts laughing.

~~~

“I assume it will be a man?” Merlin asks, during a break in an episode of _Scrapheap Challenge_.

Arthur blinks at Merlin.

“The person we have a threesome with,” Merlin explains.

“Oh. Yes. I have no real desire to sleep with a woman.”

Merlin nods.

“Are you thinking about it more?” Arthur asks, looking surprised.

“Just idly. In case someone pops up, randomly. You never know.” Merlin shrugs. Now he’s got the idea in his head he wants to keep an eye out.

“When someone suitable for a threesome will walk into the shop?” Arthur asks, wondering if he needs to give Merlin a lesson in not talking to strangers.

“Exactly.”

~~~

Merlin yawns as he leans against the counter. The clock hanging above the door stubbornly refuses to jump to one-thirty, lunch time. The morning has been dreadfully slow, without even someone dropping in for passport photos.

Merlin works in a photography shop that’s owned by Gaius, but he’s past retirement age and has mostly handed over the day to day running to Merlin and the other assistants. The shop handles a variety of business - selling high-ish end photography equipment, items for the more amateur photographer, frames, printing services, and taking photographs for passports and other ID cards - _validity guaranteed or your money back!_.

It’s an hour to lunch and Merlin can see other workers starting to pass with coffees and sandwiches. Merlin picks up his scanner (affectionately called Fred), and starts taking stock. The door clicks open, and Merlin sighs, putting Fred down and turning back to the door, smile fixed on his face. He blinks in shock when he sees Gwaine walking towards the counter.

“Hi.”

“Hi. What are you doing here?” Merlin asks.

“I passed on my way from getting supplies and wanted to see if you were in.”

“Here I am,” Merlin says, knowing it’s cheesy.

“Here you are. Have you had lunch yet?”

“Nope. My lunch doesn’t start til half one.”

Gwaine looks at his watch and frowns thoughtfully. “How would you like some company?”

“Sure. Was just planning to go to a cafe around the corner.”

“That’s fine. How about I go and grab some of the photos you wanted to see?”

“That sounds like a plan to me.”

“Brilliant,” Gwaine says. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He leaves the shop with a wave, and Merlin is looking forward to lunch even more.

Gwaine returns not far off an hour later with a laptop bag. “Haven’t had chance to print them off, thought this would be easier.”

Merlin nods and leads the way to the cafe. It’s more of a sandwich shop with a carvery section for hot sandwiches and a soup bar. Merlin picks up a hummus and roasted veg ciabatta. Gwaine goes for a more traditional cheese and pickle. They grab cokes and crisps and find a small rickety looking table.

Gwaine wakes the laptop up and opens the relevant program. Merlin scoots closer to get a better look. The scenery is breathtaking. Gwaine has taken photos of every kind of landscape from the Australian Outback (Ayers rock, bright orange against a pale, flawless blue sky) to the forests of Indonesia (painfully vivid greens and browns).

There are candids, too. Laughing women and curious children. Men working on a beat up old motorbike.

“That was mine,” Gwaine says with faint pride. “I found it abandoned, took it back to the village and fixed it up with the help of the locals. Never worked for longer than a few weeks at a time, but I adored it.”

“What happened to it?”

“I left it to Olivia - that’s her there -” Gwaine points to a woman in the background, squinting at Gwaine. “She was travelling like me, we lived together for a while - she had it when I moved on.” There’s a hint of something, not regret, but nostalgia in Gwaine’s voice as he looks at the photo, clearly remembering. He skips to the next one.

Olivia is in the photo, standing in a kitchen, laughing, one hand reaching out to Gwaine. There’s clearly affection there and Merlin almost feels uncomfortable looking at such a private moment.

“Were you and Olivia - together?” Merlin asks delicately.

“Yeah, after a fashion. Having a deadline for the end of the relationship made things…interesting. We tried not to get too attached, but it also meant we could be more reckless - we could suggest and try things out without fear of rejection or the end of the relationship as the end was coming anyway.” Gwaine’s smile takes on a filthy edge. “And we certainly tried some things. There was a lad - about twenty - and clearly curious about sex with men, but it was hard in that culture. It was all so small and contained, and the locals weren’t exactly accepting of that kind of thing. As long as you weren’t open you were fine. Anyway, the lad was interested in me, I was interested in him, and Olivia was definitely interested in a threesome.”

Merlin inhales a mouthful of sandwich and started choking. He manages to get his breathing back to normal after a gulp of coke and a couple of thumps on the back.

“So you seduced the poor young thing,” Merlin says in a strangled voice, trying to keep the conversation moving. He’s mortified he’s had such an obvious response to Gwaine’s story, and he’s desperately hoping his flush will be attributed to his choking fit. Merlin starts mentally cursing Arthur for mentioning the idea in a serious context.

“Poor! I’ll have you know he was the luckiest man in the village,” Gwaine says, nudging Merlin’s shoulder.

“Well, she is quite pretty.” Merlin smirks as he stands and deposits his rubbish into the bin. He returns to the table, feeling a lot more composed. Gwaine is packing his laptop away. Merlin gathers his coat and half empty coke bottle, and he can feel Gwaine watching him.

They walk back to the shop in relative silence, and Gwaine comes to a stop outside the door.

“This is me, then.”

“Yeah. Listen - did I make you uncomfortable earlier? Sometimes I run my mouth and I don’t know when to stop-”

“No, no. Honestly, it was fine. Just a little surprising, that’s all.” _And distracting,_ Merlin thinks, _bloody Arthur_.

“So we’re good?”

“We’re good.”

Gwaine relaxes and smiles. “I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“Yeah. See you,” Merlin says and watches Gwaine walk away. Merlin shakes his head and walks back into the shop to finish his day.

The rest of the afternoon is quiet. Merlin’s not sure if it’s a good thing or not. Now that his mind has made that connection he can’t unmake it. Gwaine and threesomes. Threesomes and Gwaine. And Gwaine is attractive and funny and Merlin wouldn’t turn Gwaine down if he was single.

He almost wishes for a customer - maybe a real beginner who knows nothing about cameras other than point and click. Something for a proper distraction.

~~~

Merlin’s distraction lasted the rest of the day, even at the dinner table. He faffed with his potatoes, half-images and snippets of conversation running through his head. He shifts in his seat.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hmm?” Merlin looks up at Arthur.

“I know for a fact your mother taught you not to play with your food. Something on your mind?”

“Sorry,” Merlin says.

“Are you going to elaborate?” Arthur asks.

Merlin puts down his fork and picks up his glass, taking a sip. “I had lunch with Gwaine today.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he came by the shop and showed me some of his photography. It’s really good, he should have no problem selling his work.” 

“What sort of stuff does he do?”

Merlin shrugs. “Everything, really. Mostly landscapes and candids, but I’m willing to bet he could do formal stuff too.” Merlin takes another sip of his drink. “He’s also bisexual.”

Arthur blinks. “Those two pieces of information are related?”

“He’s also had a threesome before,” Merlin continues, needing to blurt it all out now he’s started.

Arthur puts his cutlery down and sits back. “Right. Start at the beginning.”

Merlin launches into the tale of his lunch with Gwaine and Gwaine’s threesome during his travels. “And, so yeah. Gwaine,” Merlin finishes.

“Right. So. You’re thinking Gwaine might be a good candidate for our threesome?”

“It’s not a job vacancy,” Merlin says, rolling his eyes, “but maybe?”

“He is attractive,” Arthur admits.

“Knew it,” Merlin says, grinning.

Arthur is still frowning, though, probably overthinking things as normal. Merlin finishes his drink and picked up his fork, playing with the cold food.

~~~

“You like the idea of having a threesome with Gwaine?” Arthur asks later when they are sitting on the sofa.

“Well, yeah. That was what I was getting at,” Merlin points out, sitting forward, turning back to look at Arthur. “What about you?”

“I’m not opposed to the idea.”

“But do you like it? I’d like us to aim for someone better than ‘not terrible’.”

“Yes, yes, ok. I like the idea of having Gwaine in our bed,” Arthur finally admits.

“Tell me,” Merlin breaths, sitting back, pressing against Arthur.

“I want - want Gwaine, want to see him in bed with us.” He breaks off to kiss Merlin, who responds instantly, mouth opening under Arthur’s tongue. The kiss is wet and fast, Merlin fumbles with Arthur’s tie. He tugs at it until the knot gives way and he flings it onto the coffee table. Arthur breaks off the kiss and stands up, pulling Merlin up with him.

“Bedroom.”

“Yes.” Merlin stumbles backward, Arthur guiding him into the direction of the bedroom. Merlin is buzzing, he knows the conversation isn’t over - they still not even considered Gwaine really - but right now he’s so turned on he doesn’t want to think about stopping, and Arthur seems just as enthusiastic.

They unbutton and unzip each other’s clothing, fumbling over familiar openings, lust making them clumsy. If nothing else this fantasy has given them a renewed need for sex, an urgent rush that had faded slightly over the years of their relationship.

Merlin bites kisses into Arthur’s shoulders, crouching down as he moves over nipples, abdomen, and hipbones. Arthur curls his hand around Merlin’s neck as Merlin sucks Arthur into his mouth briefly. He stands up straight, clambering onto the bed, grinning as Arthur curses him.

“Tease,” Arthur says, getting onto the bed and crawling up Merlin’s body.

“Tell me more,” Merlin asks.

“I want to see him stretched out here.” Arthur runs a hand down the bed. “I want him  
naked and hard. I want to see you suck his cock.” Merlin whines, arching up against  
Arthur. “Would you do that?”

“Yes,” Merlin hisses, grinding his cock against Arthur’s stomach.

“Would you let him fuck you?”

“I’d ride him, fuck, I’d ride him until I came on his dick.” Merlin’s voice quavers and Arthur squeezes his eyes shut. “Would you just watch?”

“I don’t think I’d be able to keep my hands off either of you. You look incredible when you’re being fucked. I’d have to suck you or something.” He wraps a hand around Merlin’s leaking cock, swirling his thumb around the head and spreading the wetness there. Merlin thrusts upwards, clinging to Arthur. His mouth opens on a gasp.

“Either of us?”

“Can you imagine Gwaine naked on our bed? Do you think I’d be able to let you have him all to yourself?” Arthur says. “Do you want to see that, Merlin? Would you want to see me kiss him, touch him.”

“Fuck, yes,” Merlin moans out, jerking his hips upwards.

Arthur moves to straddle him properly, lining up their dicks and stroking them together. Arthur grunts and lets his head fall forward, watching his fist slide down their erections.

“Ar - Arthur,” Merlin pants, hands clenching at Arthur’s forearms. Arthur can feel Merlin tense up underneath him, can see Merlin’s flush spread to his chest. He knows Merlin’s close.

Arthur twists his hands, feeling Merlin leak steadily over the back of his hand. Merlin screws his eyes shut and lets out a stuttering cry and Arthur watches as he comes, hot liquid splashing over his fingers. The sight spurs his own orgasm on, tingling down his spine. He lets go of Merlin and strips his own erection, letting out a moan as he comes.

~~~

“How do you go about asking someone if they want a threesome?” Arthur muses as he stares at the ceiling.

“Google it?” Merlin asks.

“I am not Googling that.”

“Fuck, I don’t know. We need to get him alone without…kidnapping him. Or obviously being odd.”

“Well that’s not going to happen with you, is it?” Arthur says, huffing as Merlin elbows him.

“You know what I mean. We need to be not obviously after him for sex.”

“Until we ask him if he wants to fuck the pair of us,” Arthur says, deadpan.

“Yes. Exactly,” Merlin says, pausing to swallow. “Piece of cake.”

~~~

Arthur spends a ridiculous amount of time coming up with different scenarios in which he and Merlin approach Gwaine. None of those scenarios actually come to fruition, frustratingly.

It wasn’t that they weren’t seeing Gwaine, they were. He had merged into their friendship group almost seamlessly. It was just. How _did_ you ask someone to be a third in bed?

“We don’t even know if he likes us in that way,” Arthur says.

“No. I mean, he sort of flirts with us?”

“But not moreso than he does with anyone else,” Arthur points out.

“Hmm, maybe,” Merlin replies.

~~~

It is their turn to host a dinner, which means take out around a film. Merlin is useless at cooking and quite happily accepts this, the others tease him mercilessly, but knows its probably for the best that he doesn’t even attempt to cook. Arthur is slightly better, his curry is pretty good, but free passes on cooking are allowed every now and then, and they decided sod it, they can do with a break from cooking.

A mixture of chippy and Chinese wins and soon Arthur is unloading carrier bags, getting out foil carton after foil carton noodles, rice, and prawn toast, as well as chips, battered sausage, and curry sauce. The coffee table is covered. Everyone helps themselves, piling plates high with anything they could get a hold of.

The film is mainly for background noise (and because Arthur and Morgana grew up eating at a table and Merlin still finds it funny to see them eating with plates on their lap). Merlin manages to snag a seat on the sofa, squeezed in between the arm and Gwaine. Leon is on Gwaine’s other side, and poor Gwaine is having to be very careful with his elbows. Arthur snorts at them and just goes straight to the floor by Merlin’s legs.

Glasses of wine are poured and consumed, and soon the film had not only been ignored but actually finished, the menu screen frozen on the tv screen unnoticed.

“Oh god, I’m having a food baby.” Merlin moans, curling up slightly. A mixture of agreement and laughter met his pronouncement. Arthur chuckles and rubs a hand over Merlin’s shin. Leon leans forward to talk past Gwaine.

“Can I have your leftovers then?”

“Oh god, you fat bastard, go on then,” Merlin says, waving towards his half full plate. Arthur picks the plate up from the floor and hands it to Leon, rolling his eyes.

“Nice to know some things never change,” Gwaine remarks, watching Leon with a mixture of disgust and awe. Leon just grins.

“Not my fault the Chinese is amazing.”

“It is the best one,” Gwen says, looking longingly at the sweet and sour chicken balls (her not so secret ultimate weakness food). “I wish the one by us was half as good.”

“No you don’t, because you’d live off it then you’d have a heart attack and I’d find you dead, face down in a puddle of sweet and sour sauce,” Lance remarks, earning a thump.

“It would be a good death,” Arthur says. He’s almost as fond of the dish as Gwen.

“See, Arthur understands.”

Lance takes on a heartbroken expression. “Gwen, will our love survive this?”

“I don’t know, it’s a bit of a deal breaker, if I’m honest.”

“It’s a good job Arthur’s taken, isn’t it?” Merlin says and threads his fingers into the hair at the nape of Arthur’s neck.

“It really is,” Gwen says. Lance laughs up at her and kisses her. Her returning grin is blinding. Percy and Morgana make gagging noises. Arthur joins in the laughter and Merlin squeezes gently before moving his hand away.

“Ugh, I have a ton of marking due Monday, I should probably head off,” Leon says, pushing himself up to a standing position. He holds out a hand and pulls Morgana up.

“Fine, I’ll drive you home,” Morgana says. Leon bends and whispers something in her ear which makes her smack his arm, but there’s a smirk on her face nevertheless. They pull on coats and distribute hugs to everyone, then leave. That seems to be the cue for everyone else to leave, slowly trickling out.

“Gwaine, you coming to watch the match Sunday?”

“Yeah, can’t wait to see the look on your face when you lose.” Gwaine smirks.

“You’re full of it!”

“We’ll see. Never underestimate the underdogs.”

Arthur splutters at him before launching into a detailed explanation of why, exactly, QPR were doomed to lose.

“Have fun, Merlin,” Elyan says, forcibly dragging Elena away from the debate.

“Thanks. No really, you’re a wonderful friend,” Merlin says, deadpans, as he walks them to the door.

“They’ll be at it for hours.”

“I’ll leave them to it, see what the morning brings,” Merlin says, hugging Elena. “See you later, yeah?”

“Bye!”

Merlin shuts the door and heads back into the living room, and decides to start to clear up around the men. He watches them surreptitiously, enjoying Arthur’s slightly flushed, passionate face. Gwaine is more relaxed, sprawled out on the sofa.

Merlin’s scraping leftovers into Tupperware boxes when he realises the voices have stopped. He puts the last box into the fridge and heads into the living room.

“You two about finished?”

“Something like that. You should have left some of the clearing up for me,” Arthur says, picking up the lid to the box and sealing the box.

“You can make it up to me later,” Merlin says. Arthur’s eyes widen just a little before he catches on to Merlin’s plan.

“I’m sure I can,” Arthur says, smirking. Gwaine coughs and starts to stand up.

“I should probably be heading off, too.”

“Ah, sorry. We didn’t-” Arthur starts.

“Actually, we wanted-” Merlin talks over him. They both stop and look at each other. Gwaine raises his eyebrows.

“Somebody want to let me know what’s going on here?”

“You flirt with us.” Merlin can feel himself blush horribly.

“Oh, hey, now-” Gwaine starts, holding his hands up.

“You do,” Merlin says over Gwaine, “and we were wondering…why? Is it because you’re a flirt or are you-”

“Interested?” Arthur asks.

“Interested,” Gwaine says slowly, looking from one to the other.

“Yeah. Like - a threesome?” Merlin says, guessing he can’t feel more mortified even if Gwaine says no at this point. _No points to us for being smooth._

“This is the worst pick-up ever,” Gwaine points out, and Merlin realises he’s not looking as confused as he was previously. He also isn’t looking like someone who’s about to run away.

“Shut up and answer the question,” Arthur says, folding his arms.

“Depends on what you’re offering.” And Merlin realises Gwaine is teasing them, and the hot tension in his stomach eases a bit.

“A threesome, with us.”

“You mean, a one-off?” Gwaine asks.

“Depends on how good you are, doesn’t it?” Merlin replies, ready to flirt now.

“A challenge?”

Merlin shrugs. “If you like.”

“Arthur?”

“Sure, I’d like to see what you can do, exactly how full of it you really are,” Arthur smirks, stepping towards Gwaine, opening sizing him up.

“Never had any complaints.” Gwaine shrugs, leaning into Arthur’s space. Merlin can see the potential for rivalry between these two. He’s not sure if he’s going to enjoy it or not.

“So, is that decided?”

“I think so. When do we want to make a start?”

“Not tonight, I don’t think. Tomorrow?” Merlin says, needing to let it sink in, that they’ve actually pulled this off.

“Yeah, we can sleep on it, or whatever,” Gwaine says.

“Ok, so. Tomorrow.” Arthur nods, taking a step back from Gwaine.

They look at each other for a moment, tension thick in the air. Merlin is starting to regret suggesting tomorrow. He can hardly breathe through his anticipation.

“Right, so. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?” Gwaine says, heading towards the door.

Arthur and Merlin follow him.

“Bye,” Merlin says, waving. Arthur shuts the door and lets out a breathy laugh.

“I can’t believe we managed that.”

“Me neither,” Arthur says, pulling Merlin into a hug.

~~~

Merlin opens the door to see Gwaine standing there, looking particularly rugged with windswept hair and worn jeans.

“Hi.”

“Hi,” Merlin replies, standing back to let him in. Anticipation is curling low and tingly in Merlin’s stomach. Arthur stands up when Gwaine walks into the living room.

“Hello.”

“Hi,” Gwaine says, looking a bit amused now, but his shoulders are a little tense.

“Sit down, please.”

“Ok. I’ve never done this - planned before,” Gwaine says, shaking his head. He sits on the sofa, Arthur sits next to him, and Merlin sits in the armchair.

“The seduction of the village boy?” Merlin asks.

“Mostly her. I was a little surprised, but not unwilling.” Gwaine smiles and it’s _filthy_.

“But you said-” Arthur says, looking at Merlin.

Gwaine interrupts with a shrug. “I run my mouth. Doesn’t mean I’m not up for this.”

“Right, well. Probably a good job we’re doing this properly then - so we’re all clear on what’s acceptable,” Arthur says, all practicality under his blush.

“Acceptable?”

“Yes, like,” Arthur pauses, swallowing. “Boundaries, limits?”

“Ok, so, like whether we bottom or not?”

“Yeah,” Arthur says, fiddling with his ring.

“Well, not just that - there are other things we could do?” Merlin says.

“I think I’d rather just get on with it, to be honest. Seems a bit…sterilised this way. We’re all gonna wear condoms, yeah? And do either of you have any issues that might crop up? Things that will make you freak out? Any kinks I need to know about?”

Merlin shakes his head and sees Arthur do the same.

“Then good. Let’s go.” Gwaine stands up, holding a hand out to Arthur. Arthur snorts and takes it, allowing himself to be pulled up. “Just let me know if you’re gonna start pulling out canes and handcuffs, yeah?”

Merlin huffs a laugh, and the tension eases a little. There’s still an air of anticipation, and Merlin wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans.

Merlin had never really envisioned this part. In his head they seamlessly glided from suggestion to bed without any bother. He’d forgotten they needed to get to the bedroom, and get naked.

“Right, so. Bedroom?” Merlin says, inwardly cringing at how strained his voice sounds, but he had to say something, or they’d have just stayed there all day. Not looking at each other.

“That would help,” Gwaine replies, cracking a smile. Arthur just shakes his head, but there’s a smile there too, just at the corner of his lips. Merlin stands and leads the way, hoping things will get a lot less awkward when they’re in a more appropriate setting.

He stops by the bed and turns to face the others. Arthur gets his determined look on his face, and steps towards Gwaine. Merlin swallows and watches Arthur wrap a hand around the back of Gwaine’s neck and pull him into a kiss and shit yes, that works. Surprisingly well, Merlin realises as his cock starts to harden.

Arthur hums into Gwaine’s mouth and slides his hands under Gwaine’s shirt, revealing tanned skin. Merlin bites his lip and palms his burgeoning erection through his jeans.

Gwaine pulls back from the kiss and strips Arthur of his shirt, leaning down to bite at Arthur’s nipple. Arthur gasps and fists Gwaine’s hair, pulling him back up for a kiss.

Arthur murmurs something, and they both turn to look at Merlin. Merlin swallows as they walk toward him with looks that can only be described as predatory. Merlin reaches out to pull Gwaine into a kiss, gasping into it as he feels Arthur tug at his trousers.

Gwaine is stubbly and Merlin can feel it scrape along his skin, and his hair has fallen down to tickle Merlin’s cheek. It’s weird, but then Gwaine’s tongue curls along Merlin’s and Merlin can cope with weird.

Merlin’s trousers and boxers are down by his ankles and he breaks off the kiss to step out of them. He tugs at Gwaine’s shirt to pull it off and Gwaine then shoves his own jeans down, fumbling in his impatience.

Soon they’re all naked and clambering onto the bed. Arthur pushes Merlin into the pillows and kisses him. He hums into Arthur’s mouth, the familiarity reassuring. Merlin gasps as he feels Gwaine lick along his hip.

“Condom?” Gwaine says lowly, and Arthur sits up to pull supplies out of the drawer. A condom is slid down over Merlin’s erection followed swiftly by Gwaine’s mouth.

“Shit,” Merlin gasps, trying not to thrust up. Arthur puts a hand low on Merlin’s stomach, holding him down as he kisses Merlin. Merlin pulls away with a gasp, and Arthur looks down at Gwaine, running his fingers through Gwaine’s hair.

“Jesus,” Arthur murmurs as his eyes greedily watch Merlin gasp and arch. Merlin’s floating on sensation, hands reflexively clenching in the sheets.

Arthur tugs at Gwaine’s hair and Gwaine pulls off with a filthy slurp.

“You can’t have all the fun, Merlin,” Arthur murmurs in response to Merlin’s frustrated groan.

“One of you gonna let me fuck you, then?” Merlin pants.

Gwaine groans softly. Arthur smirks, “I think that’s a yes from Gwaine.” Arthur picks up the lube and gets off the bed. He pushes at Gwaine until he’s kneeling over Merlin. Merlin rests his hands on Gwaine’s hips, stroking the hollows there.

Gwaine gasps, head dropping forward. Merlin lifts his head and can just about see

Arthur’s finger pushing into Gwaine between his legs. The bed shifts under Merlin and Arthur’s head appears over Gwaine’s shoulder, biting the skin there.

Merlin’s stomach tightens as he watches Gwaine all but come apart on Arthur’s fingers. Arthur is kissing his shoulder and neck, murmuring nonsense into Gwaine’s ear. Merlin tightens his hands, trying not to give into the temptation to tug on his cock.

“Arthur, Arthur,” Gwaine pants, squeezing his eyes shut. “I’m ready, yeah?”

Arthur nips Gwaine one last time and pulls away. Gwaine shuffles forward a bit, dropping forward onto his hands. Merlin gasps as he feels a slick hand on his cock, and then Gwaine’s sinking down onto him, achingly slowly.

Merlin gasps, arching his head back. He bites his lip with the effort of not thrusting up. Gwaine’s breathing harshly as he slowly adapts to Merlin filling him.

“Ok,” Gwaine says, lifting himself slightly, and easing back down. He starts moving quicker, and Merlin rocks his hips upward shallowly. “Ah. That’s it.”

Arthur moves back to kneel next to Merlin. Merlin watches as Arthur’s eyes flick over where Gwaine’s hands are resting on Merlin’s chest, up to Merlin’s face. Arthur licks his lips, mouth opening on a breath. Merlin grins and wonders vaguely about how much of a voyeur Arthur is. Arthur smiles at him, runs a hand along Merlin’s stomach, moving to wrap his hand around Gwaine’s dick.

“Oh fuck.” Gwaine shudders and Merlin thrusts up, digging his fingers into Gwaine’s hips. Merlin can feel his stomach tensing, and he makes a desperate noise in the back of his throat - he really doesn’t want to come yet.

Gwaine put his hands over Arthur’s, directing the movements, grunting as he comes over Merlin’s stomach. Gwaine’s muscles clench and Merlin groans as he comes.

Merlin reaches out a hand and wraps it around Arthur’s cock, stroking it firmly, rubbing his thumb over the head. Arthur grunts and his head drops forward.

“Fuck, fuck,” Arthur mutters, hips jerking forward into Merlin’s fist. Merlin tries to concentrate on flexing his hand, making it good for Arthur, but he’s pretty distracted by the afterglow, by Gwaine slowly lifting himself off his cock and all but collapsing the other side of him.

Arthur growls and wanks himself, coming all over Merlin, mixing with the drying mess already there. Merlin feels dirty in a way he never even thought he’d enjoy. Arthur stretches out next to him and Merlin is sandwiched between Arthur and Gwaine, sticky and hot but unwilling to move.

Merlin lets himself drift for a while, lulled by the sounds of the other two breathing next to him. The come is drying on him, making his skin itch. He knows there are wet wipes in the drawer, but Arthur’s in the way. He decides that he can cope until he can be arsed to go and get a shower. He briefly tries to figure out if three people can share the shower before dismissing the idea. Which is a shame, Merlin thinks vaguely as he falls back to sleep.

~~~

It’s dark when they all wake up. Merlin groans as he realises that his sleep schedule is going to be so fucked up for the next few days. He gets up and makes his way to the toilet. When he gets back the other two are awake, sitting on the bed.

“What time is it?” Merlin asks, stretching. Arthur leans over to look at the clock on the bedside table.

“Six.”

“Hmm…explains why I’m hungry. Chinese?”

“Sounds good,” Arthur nods, then turns to look at Gwaine. “Want to join us?”

“Yeah, alright.” Gwaine says, pulling on his boxers.

“I’ll go find the menu,” Merlin says, pulling on his boxers and jeans. He’s happy Gwaine is going to stay - it would feel weird and wrong just for him to leave after incredible sex.

Gwaine and Arthur collapse on the sofa and Merlin leans over the back, holding the menu down so everyone can see. Merlin can feel the heat rolling off them, more intense where his arms brush their shoulders.

Arthur rings to order, and Merlin curls up in the armchair, mindlessly flicking through the channels of the tv. He decides on Top Gear, as most people can tolerate it and it’ll do as background noise until they can be arsed to decide on a film or something.

The delivery arrives before the episode finishes and Merlin manages to sneak in to pay the bill while Gwaine and Arthur are fighting over paying for it.

“Sorry about them. They turn everything into a competition,” Merlin says conspiratorially to the delivery man as he takes the bags off him. He gives a generous tip, and shuts the door. “You both can pay me later. Whether in money or sexual favours, I’ll happily accept either,” he says, feeling smug as he starts unpacking the food on the kitchen table.

There’s a tense moment of silence when Merlin realises what he’s said. He stops and stands up, turning to look at the two men. They both look shocked and glance at each other, not sure what to say.

“Um, I mean. If we want? I-” Merlin swallows, feeling himself blush horribly. “We did say.”

“That’s true,” Arthur starts, then stops, clearing his throat. “If Gwaine wants.”

“Yeah, I mean, yeah. I would want to,” Gwaine says.

“So, that’s settled? This isn’t a one time thing?”

“No, I mean. I assume not all the time, but if we want?”

“Ok,” Merlin says, “ok.”

“We’ll have to stay safe,” Arthur says. “Always use condoms, things like that.”

“Obviously.”

“And if we want to stop at any time - any of us - then we just stop,” Arthur adds.

“No jealousy, no fuckery,” Gwaine points out. Merlin nods along, happy to see everyone’s on the same page.

There’s another moment of silence. Merlin takes a while to let the conversation settle in the back of his mind, getting used to the knowledge that he - they’ve got someone to have regular threesomes with. Sort of like a friend with benefits thing.

Merlin smiles hesitantly.

“Food?”

“Food,” Arthur agrees, heading towards the sofa. This time Merlin snags the seat next to him, and bumps his shoulder. Arthur smiles at him, and nabs some of Merlin’s noodles.

“Oi,” Merlin protests, spiking a piece of Arthur’s duck.

“Silverware, Merlin, really?” Gwaine says as he expertly handles chopsticks.

“Yes, hello, have you met me? Can you imagine what I’d be like with chopsticks,” Merlin says, waving his fork around.

“I’ve seen it,” Arthur is quick to point out, “it wasn’t pretty.” Merlin gapes and jolts Arthur again, while Gwaine just laughs.

“You said it!” Arthur replies, laughing.

“You’re not supposed to agree with me!” Merlin points out. Gwaine just shakes his head at them both, still laughing.

“As entertaining as you two are, maybe a film?”

“I suppose we could take a break from being hilarious,” Merlin says.

“Gracious of you,” Gwaine replies.

“So, ideas?” Arthur asks, eyes flicking over their DVD collection.

“Are they in alphabetical order?” Gwaine asks, looking along the shelves.

“Yes,” Arthur says, “because how else would we sort the DVDs?”

“I would’ve thought you’d have it organised by genre then cross-referenced by director or something.”

“We did have an argument over what to do with sequels - does The Dark Knight go after Batman Begins, or under ‘D’?”

“Question for the ages,” Gwaine says, shaking his head. 

They eventually decide to watch Wanted, much to Arthur’s delight.

“He has deep and meaningful feelings for James McAvoy’s face,” Merlin says, passing the remote to Arthur.

Gwaine just shrugs. “I’d go for Angelina, personally.”

After the film finishes Gwaine stands up and stretches. “I should head off.”

“Right,” Arthur says, standing up.

“I’ll be seeing you,” Gwaine says, pulling Arthur in for a quick kiss. Merlin gets one as well, and then Arthur is seeing Gwaine out. Merlin and Arthur look at each other and shrug. Merlin’s glad it wasn’t awkward, another nice reminder that they can have this and it not be weird.

When Arthur comes back to the sofa, Merlin turns to him.

“So, that went well?” Merlin asks. “Fulfil a fantasy or two?”

“Yes,” Arthur says. “Thank you.”

“I’m hardly complaining. I’d like you to be more involved, next time, though.”

“I can do that,” Arthur replies. “You’re ok with a next time?”

Merlin nods and leans in for a kiss.

“It’s not like we have to do it on a regular basis,” he points out.

“Exactly. Now come here.” Arthur pulls Merlin into a cuddle. Merlin sighs happily and rearranges so he’s comfortable, with his head on Arthur’s shoulder and his feet over the arm of the sofa. Arthur sticks the news on and watches the stock reports, thumb stroking gentle circles on Merlin’s stomach.

~~~

The next time Gwaine sees Arthur is odd, mainly because Merlin isn’t there, and seeing one without the other is a rarity. Nothing should change between them and Gwaine is keen to make that true. He likes the casualness of it all. But there’s a nice bit of tension there, just enough to be felt. Gwaine relishes the feeling; it’s been a while since he’s had it.

He’s genuinely surprised by how well it went. Arthur and Merlin are obviously in love, and serious about each other, that sort of relationship rarely lends itself to this sort of experimentation. He only hopes that it doesn’t fuck the relationship up. They go too well together for that.

The lads and Elena arrange to go to the pub to watch the England friendly and have a quiet drink. Gwaine’s got work in the morning so he swears to himself that it will be a quiet one. Even though he’s sure that his boss at bloody Tescos won’t notice if he’s hungover as long as he can stack a shelf. The thought of work dampens his mood. The sooner he can get his photography business off the ground the better. Working shifts in a uniform was not his idea of a good time and the conformity drags at his skin, stifling him.

He’s managed to sell some of his prints online and get a small stall at a monthly local craft fair, which has gone a fair way to boost business, and he’s got some decent contacts. Lance has been helping him with the legal side of things and he’s got a website courtesy of Elena, herself a freelance web designer. They had spent a good half day emailing back and forth about the trials and tribulations of being a freelancer, and it had been invaluable. His mind had been swimming with HTML, CSS, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter. After a few days he’s got it all sorted, he hopes. His twitter following is measly at the moment - his heart skips every time he gets a notification of a new follower, then again when it turns out not to be a spam account - but he’s putting himself out there. Just a case of waiting now.

“Gwaine?” Lance waves a hand in front of his face. Gwaine jumps. “You ok, mate?”

“Yeah, sorry, thinking.”

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Elyan says. Gwaine chucks a bar mat at him.

"Sorry I’m late.” A voice comes from behind Gwaine. He jumps and turns to see Arthur stripping off his coat. “Budge up, then.”

“Not like you to be late.”

“Yeah, work is being awkward,” Arthur says, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. “Anyone need a drink?” Everyone shook their heads and Arthur heads off to the bar, returning shortly with a pint and a packet of crisps.

“Working on a Saturday? Thought you worked in an office?”

Arthur shrugs. “Sometimes stuff’s got to be done at home. You know, emails.” Arthur sighs. Gwaine watches his Adam’s apple bob as he takes a long gulp of his drink. “It’s not mentally taxing, just - a delicate situation.”

“You’re a lawyer, right?” Gwaine asks, mentally shrugging off the fact that he’s not entirely sure what one of his fuckbuddies does as an occupation.

“Yeah. The company offers its staff a couple of free consults with the company lawyers if needed. I’m not really an expert in other branches of law, but I can give people an idea of what the best course of action is, help them with legalese, things like that.” Arthur shrugs. “Sometimes it’s really tough, but I like the challenge.”

“That’s great,” Gwaine replies, shocked that a big company would do something like that for its staff. That Arthur throws himself into it - going so far as to give up some of his free time to help - isn’t a surprise at all.

The conversation lulls as the game kicks off. It’s a fairly dull game - low stakes and far too close to the start of the Euros to make anyone too reckless. It’s nice to just sit and relax with mates though, Gwaine decides. He’s slowly getting used to being back in Britain, the culture, and the weather, and being entirely fluent in the language spoken by basically everyone he comes across. He still occasionally has a moment when he realises that he’s not saving for a plane ticket, he’s just being and it’s odd. He’s sure he’ll travel some more, there are places he still wants to go, but he’s starting to lay some roots down. He’s happy to be here, though, surrounded by friends. Leon catches his eye, and Gwaine smiles, saluting him with his pint.

~~~

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

_You and Arthur busy this weekend?_

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

_Not really, why?_

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

_Wondered if the pair of you wanted to come over_

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

_Subtle_

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

_I’m the picture of discretion. You interested?_

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

_Yeah. Saturday?_

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

_Come over in the afternoon, whenever._

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

_See you then_

Gwaine shoves his phone back into his pocket and grins. _Mission accomplished_ , he thinks.

~~~

Arthur and Merlin show up Saturday evening. They soon discover that Gwaine’s bed isn’t quite big enough for three. It was fine during, pressed close and hot, grinding together, but after, once the afterglow had worn out and there was cramped muscles and the heat became oppressive, then it didn’t work.

Arthur and Merlin end up in Gwaine’s spare bed, finally dropping into a deep sleep. In the morning, after a whispered conversation, they decided to crawl back into Gwaine’s bed for another round. Gwaine had been grumpy at first, but soon warmed up to the idea (Arthur promised bacon rolls for breakfast afterwards).

~~~

Sometimes they went weeks only seeing each other in the context of friendship.

Gwaine and Merlin had lunch semi-regularly, if Gwaine didn’t have work. Sometimes he brought leftovers and Merlin took him into the staffroom, ignoring Gaius’ raised eyebrow.

“I have a proposition for you,” Merlin says, one lunchtime. Gwaine raises an eyebrow and Merlin tuts, and hits him. “Not like that, you perv. A business proposition.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Gaius wants us to try something to try and get more business. So, I was wondering how you feel about portraits? Max Speilmann does baby portraits all the time, but we were thinking of doing a one-off, babies, families, whoever wants one, maybe Saturday and Sunday. If it picks up, we’d make it permanent.”

“Right. What’s this got to do with me?”

“Well, we - I - was wondering if you’d want to do the trial weekend? You could hand out business cards while you’re doing it, and you don’t have a studio-”

“Yet.”

“-yet, so you wouldn’t be stealing any of our custom,” Merlin finishes.

Gwaine thinks about it. It would be a good opportunity - all publicity is good publicity, after all - and he’d be helping out Gaius and Merlin. He’s never really done studio work, he dabbled a bit at school, but nothing serious. He says as much to Merlin.

“Right, well you don’t have to decide right now, it’s just an idea I thought I’d suggest. I mean, I could always talk to Gaius about staying late one night so you can get some practise in? I’m sure he’d agree to it.”

“That’s a tempting offer.” Gwaine knows not having studio experience will be a flaw if he wants to make a proper living out of photography. As much as he prefers working in natural light and environments, portraits and studio sessions are a big share of the market. “Alright, you get me the time to practise, I’ll do the trial run - both days.”

Merlin grins widely.

“I’ll need some models, though.To practise on.”

“I can arrange that,” Merlin says, almost bouncing with happiness. Gwaine leaves the lunch happy, excited for the opportunity to push his business further. He ducks into a bookshop on the way home and buys a couple of books on photography, and starts reading up.

~~~

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

_You free tomorrow night?_

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

_yeah, why?_

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

_Meet me at the shop at 7. Got some models sorted too_

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

_I’ll be there_

~~~

Gwaine hauls the bags over his shoulder and smiles gratefully when Arthur appears in the shop doorway and takes a bag off him.

“If I’d have known I would’ve given you a lift.”

“It’s fine,” Gwaine says, shrugging. He keeps meaning to get his license sorted but it’s a lot of bother, and he’s lured into a false sense of security by the mostly serviceable public transport system.

Arthur just rolls his eyes then opens the shop door. Merlin’s there, and so are Leon and Morgana, to Gwaine’s surprise.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he says, putting his stuff down and walking over to them.

“We’ve been meaning to get some photos done,” Leon shrugs.

“Plus this means Arthur owes me a favour,” Morgana says, smirking.

“Excellent,” Gwaine laughs.

“Indeed.”

“Do you want to start setting up?” Merlin asks as he walks over to them. “I’m not sure how long you’ll need.”

“Me neither,” Gwaine admits, and goes to the small studio area. He pulls out his camera and various lenses, laying them out on the floor. He then eyes the screen and the disc reflectors.

“Ok, lets get started.”

The first few shots are terrible. The lighting washes them out completely, and he makes a few adjustments, trying to remember the things he’s read about.

They’re terrible models. Leon always blinks, like his eyelids are somehow connected to the shutter. Merlin brings out a couple of stools from the back, so they can sit down.

Merlin and Arthur just piss about, sticking out tongues, or tickling each other as he makes the shot. At one point Merlin squirms so much that he falls off the stool. Gwaine would be more angry except he’s laughing too much. It’s been ages since he’s had this much fun.

Eventually he’s got the hang of it, though, the lighting working as he wants it now.

“Ok, serious shots now, if you want them,” he says, re-adjusting the tripod.

“Come on, Leon,” Morgana says, heading to the screen.

They arrange themselves on the stools, sitting close. He takes his camera off the tripod and moves around them, taking a few different shots, more candid ones. Gwaine directs them slightly, arranging them for the best effect. They look really good together, he thinks, as they smile at each other.

He loses himself a bit, in the click of the shutter. Eventually he stops, his eyes aching a bit from re-arranging the lights.

“I’ve got some good ones,” he says, handing the camera to Leon. He stretches, feeling content.

Merlin and Arthur have been unusually quiet throughout the serious session, watching from a corner.

“You alright?” Gwaine asks them.

“Yeah. You really get into it. Did you even realise we were here?” Merlin asks as he walks over.

“I forgot,” Gwaine admits. Merlin smiles at Gwaine, not taking offense, before walking past him to peer at the tiny screen on the camera.

“You really love it, don’t you?” Arthur asks.

“I do,” he says, and he does, it’s what he wants to do with his life. He looks over at Leon, Morgana, and Merlin going through his photos, pointing at something in them, smiling. They’re smiling at his work and it’s ridiculous, that he can make people happy with this.

“These are really good,” Morgana says.

“Thanks, I’ll put them on a CD for you, if you’d like.”

“That would be great,” she says, standing up. “We should be heading off, thanks for this, it’s been fun.”

“It has,” Gwaine agrees.

“Thanks, man,” Leon says, clapping Gwaine on the shoulder. Gwaine grins and returns the gesture.

Gwaine packs his things away as Merlin lets Leon and Morgana out. Arthur heads over to help him.

“You’re really good,” Arthur says as he hands Gwaine his errant lens cap.

“Thanks, it means a lot. Do you like the photos?”

“I do, I was wondering if you could our photos on a CD?”

“Sure - do you want some more serious ones?” Gwaine asks, zipping his bag up. The ones he took were mostly experimental and silly.

“No, I like the ones you took,” Arthur says, quietly. Gwaine looks up at him, and he’s smiling, holding out a hand to pull Gwaine up. Gwaine takes it and stands, hiking his bag on his shoulder.

~~~

When he gets the payment from his first wedding shoot, Gwaine invites everyone around for dinner. He serves chicken Satay, the way he was taught in Indonesia, with a few necessary substitutes. Gwaine finds himself surprisingly nervous. It’s his first time hosting a dinner night and it feels like a rite of passage. He finds himself desperately wanting to be accepted into the group.

The food goes down well, with Lance begging for the recipe, which leads to a discussion on types of cuisine.

After food they’re all slightly tipsy, and move to the living room. Arthur, Merlin and Gwen cram on the sofa, Morgana and Elena take the remaining chairs and everyone else finds a bit of floor to sit on. The PS3 gets pulled out and they take turns playing old school Sonic, shouting unhelpful suggestions and jeering at whoever is holding the controls at the time.

“Jump left!”

“The _other_ left!”

“Will you fuckers stop trying to help?”

It’s not until Morgana attempts to stand up and abruptly sits back down again that they realise that most of them are well on their way to drunk, and it’s pushing one am, and should probably think about trying to get a taxi.

“You could all crash here,” Gwaine offers.

“Where, exactly?” Merlin slurs.

“The floor?” Gwaine says, frowning. Merlin has a point. Merlin and Arthur could sleep in his bed? Maybe?

“S’ok, the taxis run til two,” Morgana says, turning to poke Leon. “Ring us a taxi.”

“Yes, dear.” Leon dutifully pulls his phone out and squints at it, managing eventually to get to the right number.

“He has fat thumbs,” Morgana says sadly, patting Leon on the arm. Leon eloquently bobs his tongue out, which the group finds hilarious. Elyan calms first and shushes them loudly.

“Order a couple,” Lance says, standing up and stretching. “We’ll take the other one.”

“You want to share with these two?” Elyan asks Elena. Elena yawns and nods, resting her head briefly on Elyan’s shoulder. Gwaine raises an eyebrow at Gwen, who is probably more in the know than any of them. She just rolls her eyes. He makes a note to corner her and see if there’s any gossip about those two.

“We should order one too, we’re in the opposite direction.” Merlin says.

Arthur hums in response and stands up. “Going for a piss first.”

“Ok,” Merlin says, and promptly lies down, taking up all of the recently vacated sofa. Everyone starts collecting their belongings and putting on shoes and coats. Gwen starts piling up glasses and Gwaine struggles to his feet.

“You don’t have to, I can get these.” Gwaine takes the glasses from Gwen’s hands.

“It’s fine. Have to wait until the taxi gets here.” Gwen stops, running a hand through

Merlin’s hair. “Don’t go to sleep, dear.”

Merlin mumbles in reply. Gwen smiles up at Gwaine.

“He might end up staying there is he falls asleep. He’s a heavy sleeper.”

Gwaine shrugs. “If he can sleep on the sofa he can stay there.”

He walks into the kitchen, glad of the slightly cooler air there. He piles plates into the sink.

“Hey,” Gwaine jumps, clattering the plates. He twirls around, closing his eyes as the room continues to swirl after he’s stopped moving.

“Jesus, Leon, warn a man next time.”

“Sorry,” Leon grins, unrepentant. “Just wanted to say thanks for the evening.”

“Did I pass muster, then?”

“Yup, you’re definitely going on the rota - no getting out of it now.”

“Bugger,” Gwaine swears mournfully.

Everyone else leaves, Arthur makes a show of poking Merlin into wakefulness and whispers in his ear. Merlin blinks up at Arthur, then breaks out into a filthy grin. Gwaine makes a noise in the back of his throat, and two sets of blue eyes lock on him. His stomach swoops in a way  
that has little to do with the amount of alcohol he’s consumed.

~~~

The kickabout sessions don’t really catch on - occasionally someone will mention it in passing and they’ll arrange one for the next weekend, but it doesn’t really go further than that. It’s a shame, Arthur thinks, because it’s a lot of fun and it works the tension of the week out nicely.

They manage to arrange one during a nice hot weekend. The park is full of people desperately soaking up the sun but they manage to find a free corner away from kids and dogs.

Gwaine’s doing keepie uppies while the others are warming up, blatantly showing off - not that Arthur’s complaining.

He takes a look at the others, all pretty caught up in their own conversations, and jogs over to Gwaine. Gwaine glances at him and smirks. The next time the ball falls down to his feet, Gwaine angles the kick so the ball heads towards Arthur. Arthur jumps a little then catches it on his chest, dropping it to his knees.

Arthur’s just entered his stride, balancing the ball nicely when Gwaine comes and tackles him, causing Arthur to lose the ball and his balance.

“Oi!” he shouts, scrambling back to his feet. The others have started to move towards them – Arthur can hear Leon shouting something but he’s too busy planning his next tackle.

It descends into an all out tussle, Arthur gives up on trying to tackle properly when he sees how dirty Gwaine plays and starts taking a few risks.

Arthur misjudges a move and Gwaine’s ankles twists underneath him. He falls to the floor, swearing.

“Shit,” Arthur mutters, dropping to his knees next to him. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just twisted it a bit.”

“Bollocks. Sorry,” Arthur says. Gwaine shakes him off pulling off his boot. The others are gathered around them now.

“We should get some ice on that ankle before it swells too much,” Elyan says, moving to help Gwaine get up.

Arthur pulls Gwaine’s arm over his shoulder, supporting his weight.

“Get him back to the car, we’ll get him sorted.”

“Lads, it’s just a slight sprain, don’t fuss.”

“He can come back to mine, make sure he doesn’t try to walk,” Arthur says, ignoring Gwaine’s protests.

“Looks like the match is off then,” Leon says.

“We’ll arrange a re-match as soon as hop-along here can walk,” Arthur says.

“I can walk!”

Elyan and Arthur take Gwaine back to the car, Leon and Elena trailing behind with bags and jackets. They lower Gwaine and he shuffles into the passenger seat of the car. He winces as he catches his ankle, then glares.

“Do you want to come back to mine, we can have a drink at least?” Arthur offers, feeling guilty for being partially responsible for the match being postponed.

“Nah, we’ll let you and Merlin play nurse,” Leon says, nudging Arthur’s shoulder. “We’ll arrange something for next weekend.” Leon leans down to peer into the car at Gwaine, who’s now sulking. “You think you’ll be up to that, invalid?”

“I don’t know why I’m friends with you,” Gwaine says. Leon just laughs at him.

They part ways there, slightly subdued. Arthur starts up the car and pulls away. Gwaine leans over and murmurs.

“You better make up for this, Pendragon.”

Arthur swallows hard at the gravelly tone of Gwaine’s voice. Gwaine just smirks at him and settles in for the journey back to the flat.

~~~

Merlin isn’t in when they get back.

“He’s catching up with some people from home,” Arthur explains, after he’s lowered Gwaine to the sofa. “I’ll go find some ice.”

Arthur finds some frozen peas which he wraps in a tea-towel and takes to Gwaine.

“Ok, so, we need to lift your leg,” Arthur says, shifting the coffee table so Gwaine can put his foot on it. Gwaine lifts an eyebrow.

“This is the one and only time, Gwaine,” Arthur warns. “Think of it as part of my making it up to you.”

“I was angling for a lot more than putting feet on the furniture.”

“Maybe after you’ve recovered.”

“It’s not actually that bad,” Gwaine points out.

“How bad is it?” Arthur asks.

“A little sore, the ice is helping,” Gwaine admits.

“I’ll go find some painkillers.” Artur stands up and heads to the bathroom. He sends off a quick text to Merlin letting him know what’s gone on. He gets a reply as he’s looking through the cabinet for some ibuprofen.

From: Merlin

To: Arthur

Can’t leave you alone for a second. You two survive til this evening without me?

From: Arthur

To: Merlin

Depends if you’re bringing takeout back with you

Arthur finds the tablets and grabs a glass of water from the kitchen. Gwaine takes the pills without too much grumbling, which Arthur takes to be a bad sign.

From: Merlin

To: Arthur

I’ll stop at the chippy on the way back. Any requests?

“Merlin’s going to the chippy on the way back, do you want anything in particular?”

“Do I have a choice about staying here tonight?”

“Oh, if you want I can take you back,” Arthur starts, “I mean, I thought it would be easier if you were here and I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“It’s fine, I was joking,” Gwaine replies. “Besides, how could I refuse such fine hospitality? All I need is a little bell and I’d be set,” Gwaine says, shifting on the sofa.

“If you think I’m fluffing pillows for you, you can think again,” Arthur says.

An hour or so later Merlin comes back, complete with offerings of fish and chips. Arthur brings plates into the living room and starts dishing out.

“I went to the chemist, and they said you need to put a bandage on it,” Merlin says, sitting on the coffee table and pulling a box out of a bag. “I had to guess a bit on size, so I really hope you don’t have freakishly big ankles.”

“My ankles are positively svelte,” Gwaine replies. Arthur watches as Merlin smiles up at Gwaine and picks Gwaine’s foot up and into his lap. He guides the bandage over Gwaine’s foot, and, although Arthur can’t see it, he can imagine the frown on Merlin’s face as he tries not to hurt Gwaine further. He sees Gwaine watching Merlin carefully, before glancing up and meeting Arthur’s gaze. Gwaine smiles, just slightly, and Arthur smiles and shakes himself, looking down at the plate in his hand.

“All done,” Merlin says, shifting out from under Gwaine’s foot.

“Thanks,” Gwaine says quietly. Merlin turns and looks at Arthur.

“Haven’t you finished dishing up yet? I’m starving.”

~~~

“Hi.” Lucy, one of Gwaine’s co-workers smiles up at him. She’s very pretty, Gwaine notices, as she scans his groceries through the till.

“Hi there. How are you today?”

“Good, glad it’s Friday.”

“Aren’t we all? Got any plans?” Gwaine asks as he hands over his staff card for his discount.

“Picnic if the weather stays nice. You?”

“Not really, no.”

“Well, you’re welcome to join, if you like?” she asks and Gwaine looks at her, realising she’s flirting with him. He finds himself turning her down before his brain can catch up with his mouth. Her face falls but then she smiles.

“Ah well, had to try didn’t I? Insanely jealous of whoever it is though.” Gwaine chuckles and says his goodbyes. He walks down the street in a daze. _The fuck did I just do?_

He ignores it. It was a slip of the tongue, and it wasn’t like he was that attracted to her - otherwise he would’ve made a move already.

~~~

Arthur gets up from the sofa and wanders into the kitchen. He opens and shuts the fridge door, and does the same with the cupboards, blindly looking into them. He isn’t hungry or thirsty. Just restless. Like he needs to do something but he has nothing pressing to do.

“You alright?” Merlin looks up from the TV.

“Eh. I’m just-” Arthur shrugs.

“A big pile of dunno?” Merlin suggests.

“Yes. That.”

“Can I help?”

“No, it’ll pass,” Arthur replies, sitting back down on the sofa. Merlin drops it, thankfully but keeps shooting him looks over his tea.

He’s been feeling off for a while, but he can’t exactly pinpoint when it started. He tries to trace the feeling back to a specific day, but he can’t do it.

Arthur frowns and drinks his tea. He knows that Merlin will only give him so long before he broaches the subject again, but Arthur’s hoping he’ll have sorted through his confusion by then and have a decent answer for Merlin.

~~~

Gwaine knew it wouldn’t last - his encounter with Lucy has been niggling the back of his mind like a sore tooth he can’t help but poke. He’d really been enjoying the casualness of his sessions with Arthur and Merlin, the knowledge he could have hot sex when he wanted. However, it’s starting to look like it’s going a bit further than that.

Gwaine’s never been good at permanence, and one Wednesday it starts to rankle. But he’s got work and really doesn’t want to have to face the disappointment on everyone’s faces, so he throws on the uniform and gets through his shift. Thursday finds him being asked to work overtime at Tescos, and a text from Merlin reminding him that they’ve arranged to go to the pub after work on Friday and his skin really starts to itch.

He decides to turn down the overtime, and ignores the text. He throws some things into a bag and walks to the train station. He ends up hopping on a train to Wales. It’s the last train of the night, and he’s basically got the carriage to himself. He gets to his destination at slightly after midnight, and he stands on the platform, stretching his muscles out.

He finds a somewhere open to grab some snacks and then wanders around. He finds the sea and stands there, looking out over the swirling dark liquid. It’s cold, and the tide is high, spray covering him. When he takes a sip of his tea, it tastes salty.

Gwaine spends the night huddled around his bag, sometimes dozing. He watches the sunrise and then finds a small cafe for breakfast. The woman who serves him is nice, doesn’t comment on his appearance even though he knows he’s got to be a bit scruffy.

She lets him use their bathroom to clean up a bit, splashing water on his face and swilling out his mouth. When he gets back to the table there’s a fry up waiting for him.

The sea air is fresh and cool. He takes great lungfuls of it in, shuddering as it makes his sinuses ache. It’s not tourist season, so everything’s quieter, more relaxed. He spends the day wandering up the sea front, talking to buskers, taking photos of kids on donkey rides.

Saturday evening Gwaine decides to pull out his phone. He’s got a few texts from people asking if he’s alright.

He replies to Leon, knowing he can spread the word.

From: Gwaine

To: Leon

_Sorry. Got a bit too much. Be back tomorrow._

From: Leon

To: Gwaine

 _Stupid twat_ followed by,

From: Leon

To: Gwaine

 _Let us know first next time, yeah?_ and Gwaine feels a little better.

~~~

Gwaine’s not looking forward to facing everyone after his little trip.

He offers to take the next dinner spot, and Percy is more than happy to give up his turn for Gwaine. Gwaine spends the day fiddling with the food. He’s gone all out, he’s hoping that he can stuff everyone, make them too lazy and content to have it out with him.

Of course, Arthur and Merlin show up first. Gwaine hasn’t seen them alone for a while. His stomach twinges when he opens the door, and he’s shaky like he’s got a fever. They’re quiet, and Gwaine hates it.

“Look, can we just - get it all out? In one go?”

“We were worried,” Merlin says.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve told people first.”

“Why?” Arthur asks. “Did you leave, I mean.”

“I needed to get away. To breathe.”

“To breathe,” Arthur says, deadpan.

“Yeah, I’m not good with expectations.” Gwaine hopes Arthur at least can relate to that, even if it’s not exactly the same. He doesn’t know much about Arthur’s work but he knows Arthur’s dad is bit overbearing, and that Arthur’s feelings of obligation to his father were the causes of some of Arthur and Merlin’s bigger fights, back when they were first going out.

Arthur just shakes his head and then looks away. “Some warning would’ve been nice.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“Leon’s going to kill you,” Merlin points out.

“Yeah, I know.” Gwaine grimaces. “All I can say is sorry.”

The evening is subdued, and Gwaine ends up apologising more in one night than he ever has done in his life. He’s forgiven by the end of it though, and he’s thankful none of them are the types to hold grudges.

~~~

“I was wondering,” Arthur says, feeling nervous and silly about said nerves in equal measure. “What about having Gwaine over this weekend?”

Merlin shrugged. “I’m not that fussed, really.”

“Oh, well. We don’t have to,” Arthur says, trying not to let his disappointment show.

“Maybe next weekend? I’m not feeling in the mood, this weekend.”

“Sure, ok,” Arthur replies.

Merlin relaxes slightly. He feels off, disconnected feels like the best word to describe it. He wonders if it’s a reaction to Arthur’s oddness of the past week or so. All he knows for certain is he’s craving a bit of ‘Merlin and Arthur’ time. He pulls Arthur to him when Arthur sits on the sofa next to him, sliding his fingers under Arthur’s shirt, not wanting to arouse, just wanting to touch.

Arthur burrows into him a bit, humming as Merlin traces patterns on his skin with his fingers.

~~~

Arthur can’t remember the last time he was this jittery. He hates it, and nothing he does seems to fix it. It’s like anticipation, leaving his stomach fluttering and limbs twitching, but he has no idea what he’s waiting for.

“What is wrong with you?” Merlin asks, irritated as Arthur finally blinks up at him. “I’ve been talking to you for the past five minutes.”

“Sorry, I’m - distracted.”

“Anything interesting?” Merlin asks.

“No, sorry. Just. Thinking.”

“Right,” Merlin mutters under his breath, turning away.

“Don’t be like that.” Arthur stands up. “I’m sorry, ok? I’m just feeling out of sorts.”

“You’ve been out of sorts for a while - are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

“I would if I knew.” Arthur runs his fingers through his hair. “Maybe I need a break.”

“You could book some time off work - you’re due some holiday.”

“Yeah, I might. Maybe just spend some time around the flat a bit.”

~~~

Spending time around the flat was not what Arthur needs, he discovers soon. At first it’s wonderful, he does some reading that isn’t required for work, goes to the gym, has a lie in. But after that, during the late afternoons, when he’s had all the tea he can conceivably drink and there really is nothing to watch on TV, he ends up thinking.

And really, that’s a bad thing.

He’s not sure why he’s feeling so discontent. In theory he should be as happy as he’s ever been. Flat, job, friends, Merlin, Gwaine. He’s not sure what else he could possibly want. He just wishes he felt that way.

He sighs and drops his head onto the back of the sofa, swallowing against the now familiar twisting of something in his stomach.

It’s becoming clear that maybe this week of doing nothing isn’t helping, so Arthur makes a vow that next week he’ll do everything like normal. He’ll go down the pub with everyone and make time for Merlin and get stuff done at work. Maybe even have Gwaine over, if Merlin wants.

He nods, cautiously hopeful that he can push through this fug and get back to where he was a few months ago.

~~~

Merlin walks into the flat and collapses onto the sofa.

“Glad it’s Friday?”

“Aren’t I always?” Merlin replies, lifting his head off the sofa. Arthur encourages Merlin to move so he can sit on the sofa. Merlin shifts so he can lie down with his head in Arthur’s lap.

“Bad day?”

“Lots of people wanting to print end of term pictures,” Merlin sighs. Arthur runs his fingers through Merlin’s hair, scratching his scalp slightly.

“Lots of giggling teenagers?”

“And their mums. And little kids who left primary school,” Merlin adds, waving a hand around. “Just a lot of mums and excitable kids.”

“This is your punishment for having a public-facing job.

“Comforting, thanks,” Merlin replies, frowning.

“You love my tough love approach.”

Merlin hums, closing his eyes and relaxing under Arthur’s fingers.

“Do we have any plans this weekend?” Merlin asks.

“I was going to talk to you about that,” Arthur says. Merlin cracks open an eye. “We haven’t seen Gwaine for a while - even just as a mate. I think we should get drinks or something.”

Merlin opens the other eye and nods.

“It has been a while,” he says. “Maybe we could invite him over? If you wanted to.”

“If you want,” Arthur says. “We don’t have to, if you still don’t want to.”

“No,” Merlin says. “I think it might be fun. It’s been a while and we’ve both been a little -” Merlin pauses and does a little hand gesture that Arthur assumes is to encompass their fug-like state. “Might be what we need.” 

“Ok,” Arthur says, anticipation already curling through his stomach. “You want to text Gwaine later?”

“Yeah, I will do.”

~~~

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

Sorry for the silence, been a bit busy. Drinks soon?

Gwaine smiles when he reads the text. He’s been wondering if something was going on between the two of them, maybe they’d decided they didn’t want to play with Gwaine that way anymore.

This is the first he’s heard from either of them in over a week and he had been trying not to feel like a jilted lover, merely annoyed that it looked like he wasn’t going to get to have sex with two of his friends again.

It didn’t exactly work, and, after realising he had checked his phone roughly ten times in as many minutes, he’d resigned himself to a bit of a mope.

He re-reads the text, realising he’s smiling. Gwaine presses reply.

From: Gwaine

To: Merlin

Sounds good. This weekend?

From: Merlin

To: Gwaine

I’ll talk to A then get back to you

Gwaine tucks the phone back into his pocket, still smiling. Maybe he can convince them to make the drinks a private affair?

~~~

They end up meeting at the pub Saturday lunchtime. Gwaine is feeling slightly nervous, so he dresses slightly better than he would normally, jeans that he knows fit well enough to show off his arse, and a nice shirt instead of a tee-shirt.

Gwaine arrives first, which is a surprise even to himself. He nurses a pint, tracing a finger over the condensation on the glass. He sees Merlin and Arthur arrive and he waves them over.

Merlin gets them drinks and they make small talk. It’s starts off a little awkwardly, but Merlin starts relating an anecdote about accidentally seeing a customer’s dirty photos and Gwaine talks about his website and suddenly it’s normal again.

They have a couple of pints, and Gwaine relaxes, loose limbed and lazy.

“So, you two got plans for the rest of the day?” Gwaine asks.

“Well, we were going to ask if you wanted to head back to ours?” Arthur asks, glancing at Merlin as he does. Merlin nods firmly, smiling.

“I’d like that,” Gwaine says, feeling himself break out in a grin.

“Good. Go after we finish up?” Merlin asks, lifting his glass. Gwaine lifts his glass and downs the dregs of his pint. Arthur does the same and soon they’re all heading back to Merlin and Arthur’s flat.

~~~

Arthur gets up from the bed and stretches, swallowing a groan as he feels his joints pop. Merlin grumbles at him, still mostly dozing.

“Need the loo,” he murmurs, leaning down to kiss Merlin.

“Ok,” Merlin replies, sleepily returning the kiss and burrowing more under the covers. Gwaine just cracks an eye open and smiles, before shifting closer to Merlin. Arthur wants to stay and watch them curled up together but his bladder is very insistent.

When he returns neither of them have moved. He stands for a moment, just looking at the lovely picture they make. Something close to fondness wells up inside him and it’s like the proverbial epiphany. Suddenly everything makes sense - the hollow feeling in his stomach, the discontent, all of it. He was missing Gwaine, he _loves_ Gwaine.

“You alright?”

Arthur startles at the question. Merlin is looking at him, concerned. Arthur wonders what he looks like right now.

“Fine, sorry.”

“Coming back to bed?”

“I was thinking of making tea,” Arthur lies, needing a bit of space. He moves to pull on a pair of jeans.

“That sounds good,” Merlin replies. “Gwaine?”

Arthur watches as Gwaine stretches, back arching like a cat. Arthur swallows hard. “Sounds good to me,” Gwaine says, voice low and rough.

“I’ll go and do that,” Arthur says, making his escape.

He doesn’t get long, just enough time to take a step back from the immediacy of it all. He’s pouring water into the mugs when Merlin and Gwaine appear, thankfully fully dressed.

“Time is it?” Merlin asks as he pulls the milk out of the fridge.

“Late. Teatime, pretty much,” Gwaine says. “I should be heading back soon, got work tomorrow.”

They drink their tea at the kitchen table, talking quietly. It feels peaceful, a startling contrast to the way Arthur’s thoughts are swirling. He’s not even sure what he’s thinking about really, his thoughts drift through his mind but never fully form. Part of it is he has no plan of attack. Arthur knows he should talk to Merlin, he has no idea what will happen from there, and the fact that he can’t plan for anything bothers him. He starts to think of ways he could bring the subject up, ways to explain how he feels but he hates all of them.

Merlin keeps shooting him glances, and he realises he’s not covering it as well as he should.

Arthur manages a little better once Gwaine has gone, slowly becoming more responsive to Merlin’s conversation. They put some pasta on to cook, and Merlin starts to cook some mince for Bolognase. They argue over how much garlic to put in, Merlin loves the stuff. Arthur would normally make a joke about Merlin leaving him for a garlic bulb, but his throat constricts around the words.

“Are you ok?” Merlin asks, stirring the sauce. “You’ve been quiet since we got out of bed.”

“Sorry,” Arthur replies.

“That’s not an answer, Arthur.” Merlin twists to look at Arthur. “You’ve not been right since before Gwaine left.”

“I’m not ok,” Arthur admits, taking a deep breath. “I need to talk to you.”

Merlin blinks in shock then visibly collects himself.

“Ok, I’ll -” He turns the hob off, moving the pans so the food doesn’t burn. Arthur moves into the living room and sits in the armchair, leaving the sofa for Merlin.

“What is it, Arthur?” Merlin asks, looking worried.

“I’ve figured out why I’ve been so off the past few weeks,” Arthur says, running a hand through his hair.

“And?”

“And, I think it’s because I’ve developed feelings for Gwaine,” Arthur finishes, wincing at his phrasing.

“Feelings,” Merlin says flatly.

“I love you,” Arthur rushes to reassure Merlin. He knows he’s probably not helping, but he’s forgotten every thought he’d had about this conversation, and he’s not entirely sure there’s a way to make this anything other than a train wreck anyway. “It makes no sense, I know. But I love you. That’s not changed.”

“Do you love him?”

“Maybe. Well, yes.” Arthur admits, feeling a little light-headed at having this out in the open after grappling with it for so long. “But I don’t want to lose you.”

Merlin swallows.

“So this is what your weirdness has been about?” Merlin asks.

“Yeah. I think I might’ve known, subconsciously, for a while.”

“When we stopped inviting him over,” Merlin says.

“Yeah,” Arthur says. “But I only really realised it today, seeing you curled up together. I just, I loved it,” he says. “I love you both.”

Arthur waits for Merlin to say or do something, the silence is too loud. He’s on the verge of asking Merlin what he’s thinking when Merlin takes a deep breath.

“I’ve been thinking about suggesting having a proper break from sleeping with Gwaine for a while - I need to have a think.”

“What do you mean?” Arthur asks.

“I’m not sure myself, on how I feel about Gwaine. I’m not as sure as you are, about if my feelings are deeper than friendship, but I know there’s something there,” Merlin says, “and it seems like you need to clear your head. Maybe a break?”

“I don’t want to lose you,” Arthur says again, stuck on the word ‘break’, because most of the time there’s a silent ‘up’ on the end of that, it’s universal.

“I love you,” Merlin replies, and Arthur breathes a sigh of relief. “And I don’t mean break up, I don’t. I don’t want to lose you either. But we do need to sort this out. And we’ll need to talk to Gwaine when we have sorted it out.”

Arthur sits back. He’s mostly relieved, the conversation could’ve gone so much worse, but they’re not sorted yet.

“Do you - when you say break, do you want me to go to Morgana’s?” Arthur asks.

“That’s up to you, I’m not kicking you out,” Merlin says.

“I might stay here,” Arthur says, tentatively. “But if either of us need the space - the offer’s still open.”

“Thank you,” Merlin says.

~~~

Arthur mostly throws himself into his work, and spends his nights staring at the ceiling. He moves to the spare room, not wanting to disturb Merlin with his tossing and turning. Merlin doesn’t really look like he’s sleeping well at the moment either.

His feelings don’t magically sort themselves out, just continue to swirl around his head, clogging up all his other thoughts. He doesn’t do half as many consults with staff as he normally does; he knows he can’t handle the extra emotions right now.

Arthur starts at the beginning, desperately trying to find a path through his conflicting emotions.

He loves Merlin, that will never change. The idea of not having Merlin in his life is terrible. However, he can’t get away from the fact he’s in love with Gwaine.

It’s during one of his mopes that his phone buzzes with a text.

From: Gwaine

To: Arthur

What’s up? You seemed off when I was there

From: Arthur

To: Gwaine

It’s complicated. Merlin and I are working some stuff out.

From: Gwaine

To: Arthur

Shit, sorry

From: Arthur

To: Gwaine

Nothing to apologise for. Sorry we’re being a bit flakey

From: Gwaine

To: Arthur

Hope you get things sorted

From: Arthur

To: Gwaine

We’ll let you know

~~~

Arthur knows they can’t actually hide from everyone, and sooner or later everyone gets the message that something is up. Arthur’s not sure how, but the group is very in tune to each other’s feelings, and so it’s not incredibly surprising.

From: Morgana

To: Arthur:

Lunch, tomorrow 1:30. Eat’s.

Arthur sighs, and pushes a hand through his hair.

From: Arthur

To: Morgana

If I must

There’s no response which in itself is a response.

~~~

“So, what’s going on between you and Merlin? You’ve been off,” Morgana says, skipping all the pleasantries, which Arthur is thankful for. He’s not in the mood for small talk.

Arthur shakes his head. “We’re thinking some stuff over. It’s complicated.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Morgana asks as she pays for her food.

“Soon, maybe,” Arthur says.

“If you need someone to listen, you know where I am. Sometimes you need an outside opinion. And I’m always impartial.”

“You’re something,” Arthur replies, rolling his eyes. Morgana makes a face back at him, and Arthur laughs, feeling lighter than he has in days.

“I’m being serious.” Morgana grips Arthur’s wrist.

“I know, thank you,” Arthur says, sincerely.

Just before they part, Morgana catches Arthur’s hand, holding it tightly.

“You two are good together, you’ll get through it,” she says. Arthur nods, hoping she’s right.

~~~

“Hey,” Gwaine says, standing back to let Leon in.

“Hey yourself,” Leon says, walking into the house and heading straight to the kitchen.

He opens the fridge and helps himself to a beer.

“Pass me one?” Gwaine says, leaning against the counter. They open the cans and take a drink in silence. “So what brings you here?”

“Is everything ok with you?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” Gwaine lies through his teeth, hoping he can fool his friend. It’s not that he wants to lie, it’s just that they’ve never spoken about his fuck-buddy status with Leon, they’ve never had that sort of friendship.

He wants to revel in it for a while, be a bit self-indulgent in his brooding. He knows the urge will pass quickly, and then he’ll tell Leon, and open himself to his opinions and advice. He just wants to lick his wounds a little, first.

“Just wondering.” Leon shrugs. “You seem a little tense - ever since Arthur and Merlin started to get rocky. Not sure what happened, and I’m not pushing for an explanation either. Just want you to know that I’m here for you, yeah?”

“Everything’s fine,” Gwaine says, hoping he sounds casual. He can’t believe Leon has picked up on Gwaine’s tension, and he wonders if anyone else has noticed.

“I’m sure it is. But if it isn’t, you know where I am.” Leon says, putting his drink down on the counter.

“Thanks, man,” Gwaine says. He almost considers telling Leon everything, but the almost inevitable pity angers him before it’s even manifested and so he keeps his mouth shut.

Leon changes the subject to rugby, something Gwaine is intensely grateful for. They end up making a stupid bet on the the Ireland vs. England match, and vow to watch it together in the pub. Gwaine almost stops thinking about his wreck of a love life.

“Right I should be off,” Leon says, throwing the can into the recycling. “I’ll see you Saturday, and remember what I said, yeah. Don’t be stupid on me.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Gwaine mutters. “See you.”

“See you.”

As soon as Leon’s gone, Gwaine wishes he’d spoken to him.

~~~~

Later on, when Gwaine’s sat in front of a rerun of _Mock The Week_ for lack of anything to watch, he picks up his phone and cycles through his contacts, his old texts, things to distract him. He opens a blank message and types out a message.

From: Gwaine

To Leon:

I may have done something stupid

He waffles back and forth, deleting it more than once and throwing the phone onto the sofa next to him. Eventually he sighs, retypes the message and sends it. He immediately drops the phone next to him and doesn’t look at it, pretending not to listen out for a reply.

From: Leon

To: Gwaine

That doesn’t surprise me

From: Gwaine

To: Leon

You’re funny. I’m serious

Gwaine waits half a minute then sends another message.

From: Gwaine

To: Leon

I’m in love

From: Leon  
To: Gwaine  
Who?

Gwaine groans. He really doesn’t want to answer this question, admitting he was in love was bad enough, admitting the names was the last step to making this whole real, something he has to deal with rather than ignore.

From: Gwaine

To: Leon

Arthur and Merlin

Gwaine presses send, heart pounding. He waits for the knock at the door.

Leon, bless him, appears with a bottle of vodka and a sympathetic look. Gwaine just lets him in and goes to sit back on the sofa. Leon disappears into the kitchen and reappears after a while with two glasses of vodka and lemonade. Gwaine takes one of them and sips, grimacing at the burn of the alcohol. Definitely more vodka than lemonade in the glass.

“I agreed to the threesome because they’re hot,” Gwaine starts. Leon blinks like he’s reassessing his world view a bit but nods. “I didn’t expect-”

“Feelings?” Leon suggests?

“Yeah, that.”

Leon blows out a breath. “What are you going to do?”

“Fucked if I know. I could leave, go off again, travel some more.” Leon sighs softly. Gwaine looks at him, sensible, strong, dependable Leon. Leon who’d been so excited that Gwaine was coming back, settling down for a bit. He can’t do that to Leon, even though Leon wouldn’t stand in his way. Gwaine finds he didn’t want to. “I don’t want to, though. I like it here, I like having regular friends.” Gwaine takes a long swig of his drink. “So I guess I’ll have to put up with it.”

“Are you going to manage?”

“Yeah, course. I’ll deal. Go out on the pull - it’s been a while.”

“Go seduce some unknowing young thing out of their pants?” Leon asks.

“Yes, that. And then get over it. Them.”

Leon shakes his head. “I can’t go out on the pull, but I can certainly organise a night out. Without them,if you want.”

“You don’t have to exclude them. It wasn’t deliberate or anything. It would be wrong to push them out because I’m stupid.”

Leon shrugs. “It might be good, to have a bit of time apart. Give things time to heal first. Have you told them about your feelings?”

“No.”

“Are you going to?”

“No. I think they know, to be honest. Everything’s gone a bit awkward,” Gwaine says, thinking back to how Arthur had acted the last time the three of them were together. Like he’d realised something. Then came the text about them needing to sort some stuff out and Gwaine could easily put two and two together. Arthur has realised that Gwaine might be slightly more invested in this arrangement than them and they’ve decided to pull back. Gwaine regrets that, too. Arthur and Merlin are good people - great friends. He doesn’t want to lose them as friends but it’s looking inevitable, even if it’s only temporarily.

“Do you regret it?”

“No.” Gwaine wants to say something awful, like ‘I don’t do regrets’ but that’s ridiculous and Leon wouldn’t believe him anyway. “No, it was worth it, I think.” He takes a drink. “They were pretty good fucks,” he adds, smirking when Leon chokes on his drink.

“Please, I beg you, no details.”

“Mate, are you sure? There was this one time -”

Leon scrunches his eyes shut and covers his ears with his hands. “Stop it! Stop! Mercy, I beg you!”

Gwaine is laughing too much to keep talking.

“You going to be ok?”

“Course I will.”

“Good, I won’t feel bad about kicking your arse at FIFA,” Leon says, picking up the PS3 controls and handing one to Gwaine.

“You wish,” Gwaine says, starting up the console, the heavy ache in his chest suddenly feeling a lot lighter.

~~~

Arthur decides to do something he probably should have done a while ago. He pulls open his laptop, types ‘In love with two people’ into Google and gets lost down the rabbit hole that is the internet. After a few false starts - sites with advice on how to choose between two people, or on how to battle a love addiction - he finds the wiki page on polyamory.

He devours page after page, lighting on the term _Triad relationship_ and opening another tab to search for that. He reads testimonials, blogs, advice columns (learns the term monogam-ish, although he doubts that will ever apply to them). He realises that there’s no real rule book for this type of relationship, and what one group of people swear by another will advise people not to do it ever.

There are tenets though, themes of honesty, communication, trust running through everything he reads. He realises just how wrong they went about things, and now it’s coming to bite them in the arse.

Arthur reads until his eyes are aching from the glare of his screen. He sits back, and takes a deep breath. His head is full of what he’s read, ideas and images of the three of them, together, properly.

Arthur wonders if it could work, if the three of them would be able to get there. He shakes his head, realises he’s a bit too far ahead of himself. He needs to speak to the others first.

It doesn’t stop him going to bed feeling hopeful for the first time in a while, though.

~~~

Merlin sends Arthur a message after a week. They’ve spoken, but it’s been distracted, both of them too lost in their heads. He knows he could just wait until they both get home, but it’s going to be awkward and he wants a bit of space to arrange something.

Merlin’s feelings for Gwaine are much more tentative than Arthur’s apparently are. It’s more than lust, Gwaine is attractive on multiple levels. He’s hesitant to put the name infatuation on it, although that’s certainly part of it.

Gwaine’s life has been so exciting, and he’s done so much that Merlin can’t help feel a little awe-struck. He knows he’s romanticising the whole thing, that Gwaine is a bit of a drifter, but still, travel always sounds exciting. And he’s undoubtedly talented with a camera.

But under that there’s very real foundations of something more, something altogether deeper. He like spending time with Gwaine, both in and out the bedroom and doesn’t want to stop that.

Merlin realises the next step is talking to Arthur about the next step. He can’t do much without talking to Arthur about what he wants to do.

 

From: Merlin

To Arthur:

I’m good to talk, whenever you are.

He sends the message when he’s on his lunch, and sets the phone on the table. Merlin jumps when his phone buzzes at him. He looks at the phone and opens the message from Arthur.

From: Arthur

To: Merlin

Me too. After work?

From: Merlin

To: Arthur

Sure. Want to meet at the pub, maybe?

Merlin sits, rubbing his thumb over the screen of his phone. He still jumps when he gets his reply.

From: Arthur

To: Merlin

Yeah pub works. See you there at 7?

From: Merlin

To: Arthur

Sounds good

Merlin puts the phone down. He feels incredibly awkward and he hates it. He’s never really felt this way before. Yes, awkward isn’t a new feeling for him, but with Arthur - they sort of fell together. It hadn’t been easy, they clashed often, but this is different and horrible.

He hopes that tonight will change something. He thinks that anything will be better than this limbo.

~~~

That evening sees Merlin sitting in the corner of the local. He’s early - Gaius had kicked him out of the shop before his shift was over, announcing him no good to anyone, the state he was in. Now his knee jiggles as he waits and his fingers fiddle with the menu that he knows off by heart.

Every time the door jangles open Merlin jumps. When Arthur actually walks through the door Merlin’s so worked up he almost falls out of his seat.

“Didn’t expect you here before me,” Arthur says as a greeting.

“I was very early.” Merlin shrugs, realising his brain has stopped working.

“Right,” Arthur says quietly. He still hasn’t sat down. “Do you want a drink?”

“Just a coke, please.”

Arthur nods and returns with two pints of coke. Merlin is gratified to see Arthur isn’t drinking either.

“Thank you,” Merlin mutters as Arthur places the glass in front of him, and he takes a sip, shuddering a bit at how cold it is.

“So, you wanted to talk,” Arthur says.

“I think we need to, yeah.”

“Nothing has changed on my part,” Arthur says. “I love you, and I love him.”

Merlin looks at him, surprised to see Arthur open, clearly comfortable with how he’s feeling now. “Right,” Merlin says.

“You said that you weren’t sure what you felt for him. Have you figured it out?”

Merlin takes a deep breath, and reminds himself that Arthur managed to admit to this, and now it’s Merlin’s turn.

“I have feelings for him, too. I’m not sure - it’s more than friendship, it’s certainly romantic. It might be love, but I’m not sure.”

There’s a pause, both of them lost in their thoughts.

“We’re really bad at communication, aren’t we?” Arthur asks.

Merlin huffs a laugh, “I guess. We’ll have to work on it, if we decide to continue.”

“If? Merlin, I don’t want to break up with you.” Arthur reaches across the table and grabs Merlin’s hand.

“And I don’t either, but what about Gwaine?” Merlin asks, turning his hand over so he can hold Arthur’s.

“Gwaine? I have no idea.”

“Can you ignore how you feel about him? Break off the threesome thing and move on?”

“I don’t think I could. Could you?”

Merlin shakes his head. “So what now? We’ve established that we like Gwaine and aren’t really willing to not be involved with him...I’m not sure what to do next. We can’t go back to how we were.”

“We talk to Gwaine. And we go from there,” Arthur says, squeezing Merlin’s hand. “It’s pointless even thinking about the next step if Gwaine doesn’t feel anything for us.”

~~~  


They arrange to meet in a cafe, neutral ground. They order tea and sit round a plastic table.

“Ok,” Gwaine says. He’s feeling incredibly uncomfortable right now. He would have much preferred not to have spoken about this, just try to move on. He’s not sure what to expect from this conversation (other than rejection) and he has no idea what they will expect from him.

“So,” Arthur says, “I’m not sure the best way to say this.”

“We should start,” Merlin says. “I think we’ve kept Gwaine out of the loop, recently.”

“Yeah,” Gwaine says, looking from one to the other.

“We’re sorry.”

Gwaine shrugs. “You’ve needed to work stuff out.”

“It’s not fine. We should’ve handled it better,” Merlin says.

“And have you sorted it?” Gwaine asks.

“We’re ok,” Arthur says, smiling and taking Merlin’s hand.

Gwaine nods. He’s glad they’ve managed to pull through. Gwaine takes a drink and waits for the ‘it was fun, but we should stop now, we can still be friends’ speech. “That’s good.”

“But we could be better, we think,” Arthur says.

“Oh?” Gwaine looks from one to the other. He has no idea what the fuck is going on, but he really hopes it won’t take long. He just wants to get out of here as quickly as possible.

Arthur looks at Merlin, who nods. He takes a deep breath and looks at Gwaine.

“We both have feelings for you,” Arthur says.

“Both of you?” Gwaine says, blinking in shock. “Hang on - feelings? What?” 

“Yeah.” Merlin nods. “That’s what we’ve been talking about.”

“What?” Gwaine asks again, because neither of them are explaining things well.

“We both have feelings for you. Romantic ones,” Merlin clarifies.

There’s a shocked silence.

“I’m not sure what you want me to say,” Gwaine replies, heart thumping. “I mean, yeah, I like you two, a lot.”

“Well, that’s good?” Arthur asks.

“Is it?” Gwaine asks, confused and irritated.

“Look, I’m just saying, if we’re all romantically interested in each other, then we can work with that.” Arthur leans forward.

“We can be in relationship, if we all wanted,” Merlin adds.

“The three of us?” Gwaine asks.

“Yeah, it’s possible. I did some research while I was trying to sort my head out.”

“Research,” Gwaine says. His brain is whirling, and he’s dizzy from the shift in his expectations. He’d envisioned this conversation many times since they planned this meeting, and none of them had gone like this.

“On polyamory.” Arthur nods. “And we could give it a go, if we wanted to.”

“Look, I’m going to need to think about it,” Gwaine says. “You two have clearly had time to think this through, but I didn’t. I just assumed you two would get over it, and we’d all move on.”

“Of course.” Merlin nods, shifting closer to Arthur. Gwaine gets up and walks out of the cafe.

He walks the long way home, turning down streets almost at random. He has no idea what to think, where to start. Of all the scenarios he was expecting, a declaration of - of romantic intent was not on the list at all.

~~~

Gwaine opens his front door to see Merlin standing there. It’s been a few days since Gwaine has seen him; most of that time he’s been juggling work and trying to get his head around what Merlin and Arthur said, what they offered him.

“Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” Gwaine replies, shocked.

“Can I come in?”

“Sure, of course,” Gwaine says, jolting into movement. He steps back and lets Merlin in.

“I know you’re probably still thinking about what we talked about at the cafe, but I wanted to speak to you some more.”

“Right,” Gwaine says, leading the way to the living room.

“I know it’s a shock - it came as a shock to all of us, I think,” Merlin says, smiling wryly.

“You can say that again,” Gwaine whispers.

“I know it’s a bit overwhelming, thinking about polyamory and things like that. Arthur’s a planner. Once he’s found a solution to an issue he wants to go for it as soon as possible. It’s brilliant for pretty much everything, but sometimes not so much interpersonally.”

“Yeah, I’m not even sure what I’m feeling, never mind wanting to go head first into a relationship.” Gwaine looks at Merlin, watches disappointment flicker over his face quickly. “Wait, sorry, I’m not being clear. I like you two, I do, I just. This is huge, what you’re suggesting. I didn’t even want a two person relationship, never mind something that’s going to be more complicated. I just want to be sure before I start - I think we all deserve that.”

Merlin smiles softly, and nods. “I’m here to offer a compromise, maybe something with a little less pressure.”

“I’m listening,” Gwaine says.

“Come and spend some time with us. We’re good at doing that. We can’t fall into a relationship like we could if there was only two of us, but we can make steps. Like a date night?” Merlin finishes.

“A date night,” Gwaine says, considering the idea.

“Yeah, we can have food, watch a film? Curl up on the sofa, maybe end up in the bedroom, but not necessarily?”

Gwaine nods. “Sounds nice,” he says. Merlin beams at him.

“Good. So we can do that, do some more reading, talk about it, and make a decision from there?”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“That’s what I thought. Come over Thursday, say 8?”

Gwaine nods. “I’ll be there.”

~~~

It feels odd to be doing this - like they’re doing everything backwards. Gwaine knocks on the door to Merlin and Arthur’s flat.

“Hi,” Arthur says, letting him in.

“Hi,” Gwaine replies. He’s nervous, which is ridiculous, really, because he knows them already, has already spent plenty of time in this flat with the two of them.

“Ok, so. Do you want a drink?” Arthur says, heading down the hall.

“Water’s fine,” Gwaine says, wincing at how polite he’s being. Arthur smiles back at him, but it’s self-depreciating, like he knows what Gwaine’s thinking and agrees.

Gwaine heads into the living room and sits on the chair. He smiles at Merlin who’s sitting on the sofa, idly flicking through the channels.

“Hi, you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Nervous?”

“No,” Gwaine says.

“Liar,” Merlin says, without heat. “Help me pick a film.”

Gwaine stares at their pile of DVDs. “Spaceballs.”

“Absurd space humour. Fair enough.” Merlin nods. Arthur walks back into the living room with a tray of glasses and a pack of Doritos hanging from his teeth. “Arthur, put Spaceballs on.”

“Yes, sir,” Arthur replies.

They settle in and watch the film, passing the Doritos back and forth. It’s a bit stilted at first, but before long Gwaine has relaxed into a sprawl on the chair. They pause for a bathroom break and Merlin pets his hair as he walks past. Gwaine smiles, feeling a jolt in his stomach at the casual touch.

They talk and joke as the closing credits roll.

“I need to head back, work and everything,” Gwaine says, reluctantly.

“I’ll give you a lift, if you want,” Arthur offers.

“That’d be great.”

Arthur nods and pulls on his shoes. Merlin does the same.

“I want to come, too.” Merlin shrugs.

They pull up outside Gwaine’s place, and there’s an awkward end-of-night moment. Gwaine decides it’s time to be a bit brave, given how Merlin and Arthur were willing to put their feelings out in the open. He leans across and kisses Arthur, who makes a surprised noise in the back of his throat. It is mostly chaste, a brush of lips, but it’s a statement. Merlin leans forward between the seats and Gwaine kisses him, too.

“So, I’ll see you soon,” Gwaine says.

“Definitely,” Arthur replies.

Gwaine gets out of the car and Merlin hops into the recently vacated front seat. Gwaine waves as the car pulls away, grinning broadly.

~~~

From: Gwaine

To: Arthur

So we’d be a Triad?

Gwaine sends the text after reading what felt like every page mentioning polyamory on the internet. He’s intrigued by the concept, and he’s definitely tempted by it. It looks like a lot of work, but rewarding, if they can pull it off. The fact that Merlin and Arthur are also willing to put in the work to fit him into their relationship is pretty brilliant.

From: Arthur

To: Gwaine

Yeah, probably. Unless you wanted something else.

From: Gwaine

To: Arthur

Like what?

From: Arthur

To: Gwaine

No idea. Would you want to sleep with women occasionally?

From: Gwaine

To: Arthur

I’m coming over.

When Gwaine arrives as the flat, Merlin lets Gwaine in.

“This is far too complicated,” Gwaine complains, flopping down into the armchair.

“We can figure it out,” Merlin says, perching on the arm of Gwaine’s chair. “We just need to sort out what we want.”

“So, I assume we’re going for this, then?” Arthur asks.

“I think we should give it a go,” Gwaine says. Merlin grins widely

“I don’t think I want to sleep with women,” Gwaine says, answering the earlier question. “If we’re going to do this monogamously then it’s not really a question we need to answer,” Gwaine says. “If I was going to be in a relationship with just one man, I wouldn’t be sleeping with women then.”

Arthur and Merlin are silent for a moment.

“I like the idea of us being monogamous,” Arthur says.

Merlin nods. “I mean, if it becomes an issue, we could talk about it then?” Merlin suggests.

Gwaine shrugs. “Lets just get now sorted first, yeah?”

Merlin nods. “So, we’re going for it, then.”

“We are. So what now?” Gwaine asks.

“We talk it out,” Arthur says.

“That’s definitely one thing we need to talk about. Being better at communicating,” Merlin says. Arthur nods, shifting slightly. Merlin just smiles. “And yeah, it would’ve been better if we’d all handled this better, but we can learn, yeah?”

“I love you,” Arthur says, fervently.

“I love you,” Merlin replies. Gwaine tries not to shift uncomfortably. Merlin turns to him, regardless, and leans into him a bit.

“I don’t want to freak you out, but I’m pretty fond of you, too, you know.”

Gwaine coughs to clear his throat.

“I’m - pretty fond of you, too. Both of you,” he adds, looking over at Arthur.

“I want to suggest a group hug or something,” Merlin says.

“I do think Arthur’s looking forlorn over there, by himself,” Gwaine says, happy for the slight break in tension.

“I think we can fix that,” Merlin says, standing. Gwaine stands with him and they head to the sofa. It takes some doing, and they’re more on top of each other than next to each other, but they’re all squashed close. It’s reassuring after so long of not having this, of thinking that this might not happen again.

 

~~~

Gwaine ends up staying the night, not that they have the energy to do anything but cuddle. Merlin groans as his alarm goes off, hitting it until it stops making a noise at him, before burrowing back into the covers and the warmth of Gwaine behind him.

“Time to get up?” Gwaine asks.

“Ugh,” Merlin replies. “Too tired, want to stay here.” Merlin doesn’t even try to sound anything but whiny. Arthur hums from the other side of Gwaine.

“Call in sick, then,” Gwaine suggests.

“Hmm,” Merlin replies, closing his eyes.

“I think we deserve a day off,” Arthur says, to Merlin’s surprise. Merlin rolls over and raises his head to look at Arthur. His heart skips as he sees Arthur’s head resting on Gwaine’s shoulder, and he smiles.

“Are you serious?” Gwaine asks.

“Yes,” Arthur says, shifting to look at them both properly. “We’ve had a rough couple of weeks, and I’m not sure I’ll be much good at work, I don’t know about you.”

“I’m not in today,” Gwaine says, still looking shocked.

“You in, Merlin?”

Merlin shakes his head. “I can’t believe you’re suggesting we pull a sicky. You, Arthur.”

“Shut up,” Arthur says, sitting up. “Ok, so, phoning in sick.” He picks up his phone from the bedside table and calls his office. Gwaine climbs over Merlin, pausing briefly for a kiss, then pads out of the bedroom. Merlin calls Gaius, who seems to accept his story of a stomach bug and bad food, although Merlin thinks he can hear Gaius’ eyebrows rising in a disapproving manner. He hangs up and smiles at Arthur, who’s already finished his phone call.

They get out of bed and head to the kitchen, where Gwaine’s pulling bacon out of the fridge.

“Bacon sandwiches?”

“Excellent,” Merlin says. Gwaine nods and pulls out a pan. Arthur slides past him to make the tea.

“I could get used to this,” Merlin says as he sits at the table.

Arthur just snorts and puts a mug down in front of him.

“So, what are your plans, since you’re both pulling a sicky?” Gwaine asks, turning the bacon over.

“Well, I was hoping you’d stick around, and we’d lounge around doing not much at all,” Merlin says.

“I agree with that plan,” Arthur adds.

Gwaine tilts his head to one side like he’s considering it. “I think I can clear my schedule,” he says, smirking.

They catch up on what’s gone on in the world over night; Merlin curls up on the sofa with tea and the news while Gwaine and Arthur check their emails. Gwaine joins him before long. Merlin shifts and nudges at Gwaine until Gwaine lifts his arm, wrapping it around Merlin’s shoulder. Merlin hums happily.

The hourly headline re-cap comes on, and Merlin realises that it’s been at least half an hour since Gwaine came to sit on the sofa, and Arthur is still at the kitchen table, on his laptop.

“You’re supposed to be sick,” he calls.

“Just a minute,” Arthur replies, distractedly. Merlin rolls his eyes.

“We’ll have to stage an intervention. I don’t think Arthur’s pulled a sicky before.”

“We’ll have to teach him the way,” Gwaine replies.

Merlin stands up from the sofa, pulling Gwaine up after him. They wander into the kitchen.

“Sick, Arthur. That means not working.”

“We’ll make it worth your while,” Merlin suggests. There’s a pause and the atmosphere shifts. Merlin glances at Arthur who’s closing his laptop slowly.

Merlin takes a deep breath, leans forward and kisses Gwaine. There’s twin gasps, one from in front of him, one from behind him somewhere, and he steels himself to keep still. Gwaine’s hand comes up and cups his cheek, drawing him closer and Merlin’s knees go weak with relief.

He makes a noise in the back of his throat when Gwaine’s tongue slips into his mouth, it should be familiar, but there’s an undercurrent now, just enough tension to make Merlin’s skin tingle.

He hears a rustle of clothing and Arthur presses warm against his back, hands curling around his waist, then out to slide probably to slide under Gwaine’s shirt, if Gwaine’s gasp is anything to go by.

They head to the bedroom, and all but collapse onto the bed. They tug at clothes, stopping halfway through to kiss and caress. Merlin wants it all, greedy and heady with lust. It’s so much better now that he knows what’s going on; he knows they feel this too.

Afterwards, they curl up together and Merlin lets out a breathless laugh, a mixture of relief, happiness, and blissed out, post-orgasm high. Gwaine laughs with him, looking so happy that Merlin has no idea what to do with it, he just wants to make sure that look stays there, that they do everything in their power to make Gwaine happy. He looks over at Arthur, who’s looking slightly awestruck by it all.

Merlin loses the argument about who’s going to grab a cloth for clean up. He pads to the bathroom and wets a flannel. When he heads back into the bedroom he picks up the box of condoms off the floor. There’s maybe three left in there.

“We’ll need more condoms soon,” he says, putting the box in the drawer. “We’ve got about one each left.”

“You know, it would be so much easier without them,” Gwaine says.

“We’d have to get tested,” Merlin says, climbing back into bed.

“Should be fairly easy to sort out,” Arthur replies, rolling over.

“Later,” Gwaine says firmly, pulling Merlin closer. “We can talk it out later.”

Merlin yawns and tries to agree, but it’s more a mumble. There’s another grumble from the other side of Gwaine and Merlin takes it as agreement as he lets himself fall asleep.

~~~

Eventually they crawl out of bed, and Gwaine knows he’s smiling like an idiot, but Merlin and Arthur are too, so he doesn’t feel too silly about it. They sit in the living room, and Arthur opens up his laptop.

“Discussion time?” Merlin asks.

“Yes,” Arthur says, and turns his laptop around. “I bookmarked the pages that looked the most useful.”

“Right,” Gwaine says, and he recognises most of them from his own research.

“I think they could be a decent guide for what we need to talk about,” Arthur says.

“Communication needs to be at the top of the list,” Merlin says.

Arthur pulls a notebook out of his laptop bag and scribbles something down.

“Are you taking notes?” Gwaine asks.

“Yes, otherwise we might forget things,” Arthur says. “This way we can make sure we discuss everything.” He looks up at Gwaine and Merlin, who are smirking at each other. “I just want to get this right!”

“I know, it’s wonderful,” Merlin says.

“A little obsessive, though,” Gwaine adds.

Arthur chooses to ignore him. “Communication.”

“We need to make sure that we communicate as these things happen, not after,” says Merlin. “That’s what went wrong here.”

“If we want space, we need to be able to have it, without any sort of recrimination,” Gwaine offers. Arthur nods.

“That seems fair enough.”

Merlin’s phone vibrates at him, and he pulls it out of his pocket. Gwaine’s beeps at him.

“It’s from Gwen, dinner next Saturday,” Merlin says.

“I’ve got one too,” Gwaine says, putting the phone on the table. He’ll reply later.

“You could come back here, after, if you wanted,” Arthur says to Gwaine.

“That sounds good,” Gwaine replies.

“Actually, this is something we need to talk about - how are we going to act around each other in front of the others?” Merlin says, looking up from his phone.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they don’t even know what went on with the three of us, never mind that we’re trying for a relationship. We’ll need to let them in on the idea before going and acting like we are.” Merlin finishes typing out the reply to Gwen and sends it.

“I suppose it’s not the best way to ‘come out’,” Gwaine says. “But, it’s not like we’d be shoving our tongues down each other’s throats. We could be discreet?” Gwaine asks. It’s not that Gwaine doesn’t want to tell everyone they’re in a relationship, eventually. Just not so soon. It still feels very new and Gwaine wants to keep it to himself, for a while.

“I just meant that you can tell Arthur and I are together,” Merlin says. “We’re not shoving our tongues down each other’s throat but we do touch occasionally, and hold hands and things. I’d like to be able to do that with you, too.”

“Merlin makes a good point,” Arthur says.

“I just - this feels like it’s going too quickly,” Gwaine replies, shaking his head. They’ve barely even got the basics sorted, and he really doesn’t want to commit to this in front of their closest friends before they’ve been together a month. If this doesn’t work out, if they can’t make it work, it’s going to be bad enough as it is without it being a public break up with everyone knowing.

“So, what? We don’t tell anyone and just act normally?”

“I think that’s for the best.”

“If you’re sure, Gwaine? It doesn’t seem very fair,” Merlin points out.

“Yeah, I am,” Gwaine says. He’s pretty sure that’s the best they can do on such short notice.

“Well, we’ll tone it down a bit, so you’re not so left out, okay?” Arthur says. Gwaine nods. “And we’ll make it up to you when we get back.”

“Thanks, ” Gwaine says, smiling. He’s looking forward to seeing everyone again, it feels like it’s been a long month. Gwaine realises he hasn’t really seen Leon since the night he came over and dealt with Gwaine’s angst. “Just remembered,” he starts, looking at Arthur and Merlin. “Leon knows about - that I have feelings for the pair of you. He came over when I thought this was over, helped me drown my sorrows and then kicked my arse at Fifa.”

Arthur and Merlin smile.

“Sounds like Leon,” Arthur says. “So he’ll probably have questions.”

Gwaine shrugs. “I’ll tell him the truth, that we’re working on it.”

~~~

Gwaine watches Arthur pour Merlin a glass of wine and hand it to him. Merlin looks up and smiles at him. Their fingers don’t brush, and Arthur doesn’t give Merlin’s shoulder a squeeze but Arthur is in Merlin’s personal space and they’re so comfortable and Gwaine quashes a twinge of envy.

Arthur and Merlin have years of history and it’s evident in the way they react to each other, sometimes seemingly subconsciously. He’s wondering how he’s going to fit into that history when Leon pulls him to one side.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You look a bit off,” Leon continues.

Gwaine just shrugs and offers a half smile. “It’s nothing.”

“I was just wondering how it was going between you and Arthur and Merlin,” Leon says, failing to look like its an innocent subject change.

Gwaine bites his lip against a smile as Leon fulfills Arthur’s prediction perfectly. Leon just raises an eyebrow. “We’re talking,” Gwaine says, simply.

“Right. And are there any conclusions?”

“It’s still a work in progress. We’re getting there, though.” Leon looks at him, sceptical. “I know, me, Arthur, sharing about emotions. We’re all trying though, we want to make it work.”

“It?” Leon asks.

Gwaine just shakes his head. “We’ll tell you - and everyone else - soon. Playing them a bit close to our chest at the moment.”

Alright, I’ll let you keep your secrets,” Leon says. 

Gwaine is infinitely grateful. “When Morgana decides to make an honest man out of you, I’ll do the photos at the wedding for free.”

Leon just laughs.

They move back to the group and start taking seats around Gwen and Lance’s dining table. Merlin snags the seat next to him. There’s a press of leg against his, just fleeting, enough to be explained away as a fidget if anyone saw.

Gwaine smiles, a warmth spreading through his chest at the simple gesture. They really were putting in the effort to make him feel as included as possible, given the current circumstances.

~~~

“So, how did that go, do we think?” Arthur asks.

“We did alright, I think?”

“It was ok, yeah,” Gwaine says, remembering his twinge of envy.

“Damning with faint praise, there,” Arthur says. Gwaine shrugs. Merlin and Arthur exchange a look, obviously communicating without words and Gwaine just feels worse.

“Gwaine,” Merlin starts.  
“It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously not,” Arthur says, as they pull up to the curb.

“Look, I just, the pretending to not be with you was harder than expected,” Gwaine says. He wants to shrug it off, not talk it to death.

“What do you mean?” Merlin asks. 

“Can we have this conversation in the house?” Gwaine asks, getting out of the car. Merlin and Arthur follow him to the house.

Merlin goes to the kitchen and puts the kettle on. Gwaine runs a hand through his hair, trying to sort out what to say.

“You two have all this -” Gwaine waves a hand around, “history. I don’t know how I’m meant to compete with that.”

“It’s not a competition?” Arthur replies, looking confused. Gwaine shakes his head again, feeling frustrated. He’s not sure how to get the feeling across. Merlin brings in tea and Gwaine wraps his hands around the mug, the slight burn on his palms is a distraction from the men looking at him questioningly.

“That’s not what I mean. I mean, you two fit together, really well. I’m not sure how I’m meant to fit in as well,” Gwaine says.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Arthur says, “of course you fit.”

“Ridiculous?” Gwaine asks, angry.. He knows it’s partly ridiculous but having it laid out so plainly hurts a bit. Arthur opens his mouth to say something, but Merlin interjects.

“What do you mean, ‘fit’?”

Gwaine takes a deep breath. “ I don’t know, I mean. You two are already comfortable with each other, not that I’m not comfortable, but your relationship is secure, the bit with me is all new and it’s, I don’t know, I just envy it, a bit.”

Merlin and Arthur are silent for a while.

“I’m sorry,” Merlin offers. “I never thought that we’d make you insecure.”

“But at the same time, we can’t not be ourselves, or act like we’re in a relationship,” Arthur points out.

“Yeah, I know,” Gwaine sighs. “But that’s how I’m feeling. We’re supposed to be doing talking about that, right?”

“Yeah,” Merlin replies.

“What would help?” Arthur asks. He still looks angry, Gwaine thinks, but they’re talking and that’s something. He’s not sure if it’ll actually achieve anything, but they’re trying.

“I’m not sure, other than just being in the relationship. Unless one of you has a time machine?” Gwaine asks. The other two snort and shake their head. 

“So,” Arthur says, coughing slightly uncomfortably. “ We’ll need to come up with something else for being in public. I mean, we need to ‘come out’, I suppose? It’s the only way to do this fairly. I know you’re uncomfortable with it Gwaine, but I don’t think there’s another way to do this.”

“I’ll think about it. I mean, we don’t have to do it right now.”

“No,” Merlin says. “Maybe, I mean, the next group dinner is in a month, we could set that as a sort of deadline? Not a proper one, but we can make a note to definitely talk about it again then, see where we are?”

Gwaine nods. Arthur makes a note on the notepad which is a constant in their relationship now. There’ll be a google calendar alert thing set up before this time tomorrow. 

“Do you still want to stay?” Merlin asks. “Just to sleep, maybe?”

“Yeah, ok,” Gwaine says, suddenly feeling incredibly tired.

The next morning is quiet, conversation subdued. It’s their first spat, and while it wasn’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, it still had an effect. Gwaine felt a little exposed, but he thinks that maybe he needs to be a little vulnerable for this to work. He shows where his insecurities are and trusts that Merlin and Arthur will do the right thing.

~~~

Gwaine knocks on the door to the flat a couple of days later. Merlin had sent out a text calling a meeting - Gwaine hadn’t even known that was a thing, but the text had said: _relationship meeting, 7pm_ \- so here he was.

Arthur opens the door, smiling wryly when he sees Gwaine.

“Any idea what this is about?”

“Nope. He’s been very secretive,” Arthur says, rolling his eyes. Gwaine just smirks.

“You’re annoyed you weren’t able to wrangle it out of him.”

“Obviously,” Arthur replies as they head into the living room.

Merlin has the laptop set open on the coffee table.

“So, we’re all here,” Arthur says expectantly.

“Ok, so, I was thinking about what Gwaine was saying about fitting in and I have an idea. Before we decided to go for this -” Merlin waves a hand, encompassing the three of them. “I asked Gwaine about having date nights - the three of us spending time together. I was thinking about continuing that, but also having separate ones - just two of us.”

“So, say, me and Gwaine go on a date one night, then the next week or whenever, you and me-” Arthur says.

“And then me and Gwaine, yes.” Merlin nods. “That way we all spend time together, and we all get time alone as well.”

“That’s not a bad idea, actually,” Gwaine says. “I’d like a bit more spontaneity, but it’s a fair way of doing it.”

“The activities you do on the date don’t have to be planned in advance if they don’t need to be, you can be as impulsive as you like there,” Arthur offers. “Just the actual days themselves. Obviously there has to be some flexibility, with work and other things.”

“More use for your Google calendar,” Merlin points out.

“You two will have to actually use it then,” Arthur mutters. Gwaine just grins at Merlin.

“I’ll set up one for work, so you know when I’m not around,” Gwaine says, smiling as Arthur perks up at the idea of someone else using the calendar.

“Brilliant,” Merlin replies, pulling the laptop towards him. “Now all we have to do is sort out dates.”

~~~

In the middle of all this, Gwaine has a job to go to. Thankfully it’s close, a church wedding less than half an hour away.

The weather isn’t amazing, which is a shame, Gwaine thinks as he watches the wedding party enter the church. He hopes it doesn’t rain until after the photos have been taken.

He takes a few snaps of people heading in - parents of the bride and groom, the page boy and the flower girl.

Gwaine isn’t taking photos of the actual ceremony, so he wanders around the church grounds while he waits.

There’s a small cemetery attached to the church and Gwaine walks around it, occasionally reading the headstones. It’s a bit macabre, but it’s peaceful.

He ends up sitting on a bench, snapping some pictures of flowers and birds. He waits until he hears the bells of the church then rushes back around to the front of the church, ready to capture the happy couple.

The wedding party is full of joy, the tension on the day dropping off their shoulders. Gwaine steps into photographer mode, lining up the shot, herding people into the right poses, getting people to smile.

He’s hanging around the reception, nursing the glass of champagne that the bride handed to him, when he gets the first text.

From: Merlin  
To: Gwaine  
Hey, hope it’s going well. Don’t get too drunk!

From: Gwaine  
To: Merlin  
No promises, the bride is plying me with champagne, it’d be rude to refuse. Ceremony was lovely, got some great shots

From: Merlin  
To: Gwaine  
Getting handsy already? Do we have to come down there and fight for your honour?

Gwaine smiled and shook his head. He knows that Arthur’s just as behind the texts as Merlin is, the pair of idiots.

“We’re ready to cut the cake,” the bride says, and Gwaine jumps.

“Sorry, sorry,” he says, shoving the phone back in his pocket, aware he’s been unprofessional.

“It’s fine. Text from someone special?” She asks.

“Yes, it is,” Gwaine says, grinning. The bride smiles indulgently.

“Must be, if they can put that look on your face. Come on, I have plans for the first slice.”

He shakes himself then they walk over to the cake. Gwaine gets the perfect photo of the bride smooshing a piece of it into the groom’s face.

~~~  
He lets himself into his flat, dumping his bag onto the floor. He walks into the kitchen and grabs himself a drink. It’s late but he wants to have a look at what he managed to get on a larger screen, so he can better put an album together.

He comes to a dead stop halfway to the living room, realising that his laptop is still at Arthur and Merlin’s. Gwaine’s slowly moving in, apparently. It’s too late for him to head over there and start working now. He turns on his tele and decides he can head over and work at Merlin and Arthur’s tomorrow.

He waits just after lunch to head over. Merlin opens the door, blinking in surprise when he sees Gwaine.

“Didn’t expect you to come over yet.”

“Left my laptop here,” Gwaine replies as Merlin steps back to let him in.

“Good. I missed you,” he says, kissing Gwaine.

“Missed you, too,” Gwaine murmurs, curling a hand around Merlin’s cheek. Merlin hums happily, leaning into him.

“Oh, hi, Gwaine,” Arthur says, popping his head around the door. “Wondered who it was. Good job?” he asks, coming to stand behind Merlin. Gwaine leans forward, over Merlin’s shoulder to kiss Arthur.

“Yeah, it was a nice ceremony,” Gwaine replies. They untangle and move to the living room. Gwaine finds his laptop under to coffee table and picks it up.

“Left this here. You don’t mind me working here, do you?”

“Why would we?” Arthur asks. “Work away. We’ll try not to distract you.”

Gwaine sits at the kitchen table and boots up his laptop, connecting his camera. He pulls headphones out of his bag, starts iTunes, and starts to work.

He is aware of Arthur and Merlin around but he can mostly ignore them, focusing on his photos. At some point during the afternoon, Merlin placed a mug of tea at his elbow. He grinned up at Merlin in response and pulled him down for a quick kiss. Merlin gestured for Gwaine to pull out an earbud.

“Food soon?” he asks.

Gwaine looks at the clock and realises he’s been working solidly for a good few hours. “Yeah, I might stop for today, actually.” He saves his work and shuts the laptop down, groaning as he stretches.

~~~

Later on, after they’ve eaten and are sitting watching a film, Gwaine thinks back to what the bride said.

“I think it’s time to tell people. About us,” Gwaine says.

“You think?” Merlin says, and Gwaine can feel Merlin’s hand curl through his hair. Gwaine’s currently sitting on a beanbag thing he brought with him last weekend, partly because it was impossible for all three of them to sit on the sofa comfortably and partly because he had wanted to see the look on Arthur’s face. It had been totally worth it. He sits just in front of the sofa, within reach of both Arthur and Merlin, and they tend to swap whenever one of them gets overheated. Gwaine shifts slightly, so he can look at them both.

“I do,” Gwaine replies.

“What changed your mind?” Arthur asks.

“A couple of things, really. I mean, I’ve been thinking about why I didn’t want to come out, and it turns out the reasons are a bit circular.” Arthur and Merlin look at Gwaine questioningly. Gwaine just shrugs. “Mostly, though, it’s something the bride said at the wedding. She came over and saw me texting you, and she said that I must be texting someone special if they could put that look on my face.” Gwaine swallows, heart thumping in his chest. “And you are, both of you. I love you, and I want everyone to know it.”

Arthur lets out a long breath, and Merlin’s blinking at him.

“I love you,” Arthur breathes, pulling Gwaine into a kiss. Gwaine’s hand is suddenly gripped - he assumes by Merlin, and he squeezes back.

“I love you, too,” Merlin says, after Gwaine and Arthur part. They kiss, and Gwaine didn’t know he could feel this much.

“So, how shall we do this?” Gwaine asks, after they’ve parted and just sat, absorbing this new step they’ve taken.

“All at once? Like, in person?” Merlin suggests.

“That sounds terrifying, but I suppose it’s the only way.” Arthur says.

“Can’t do it over the phone,” Gwaine adds.

“True.”

“It’s ages until we’re hosting the next dinner - any of us.”

“Leon and Morgana will swap with us,” Gwaine says, turning around til he’s facing them both. He’s only just realised how much this means to him. He’s not one for validation normally - he generally tries not to care what anyone else thinks - but this is different. This is recognition.

“Ok. So. In the morning we’ll ask if we can swap - when they find out we have news they’ll probably want to bring it forward anyway,” Arthur says, running a hand through his hair.

“They’ll be ok,” Merlin says, quietly. “They won’t - dump us.”

“No.”

“Might be weird though.”

“We’ll cope,” Arthur says, shifting so his thighs press against Gwaine’s shoulder. They all shift together as close as possible, exchanging comforting kisses and touches.

~~~

It takes a few days for them to get what they want to say down on paper. Arthur wants a script, he wants to make sure they do it right. Gwaine is resistant, but comes round eventually. There’s so much they want to across - saying they were in love wouldn’t cover everything, they didn’t think - that they kept tripping up over themselves. And that was when they were the only ones in the flat. Add the nerves of saying this to their nearest and dearest and they would be stuttering messes.

So, they had a script. And they practised. They tried to the think of questions that may be asked of them, and how to answer them. They spent the evenings curled up together, not talking about it by unspoken agreement.

And then the day came. They potter around the flat all day, alternating between cleaning everything in sight and curling up on the sofa, whispering reassurances to each other in between kisses.

Gwaine disappears for an hour or so and comes back with bags of food. He retreats to the kitchen and soon the flat smells amazing.

Leon and Morgana arrive first, handing over a bottle of wine.

“This had better be good,” Morgana says, not beating around the bush.

“You’ll soon find out,” Arthur replies, tightly. Morgana gives him a searching look before moving further into the flat. Leon seeks out Gwaine, raising his eyebrows. Gwaine shrugs in response.

The rest of the group filter in, all of them obviously curious about their announcement.

“So, we were considering sharing our news after dinner,” Arthur announces, to answering groans.

“You can’t do that, how can we eat with this sort of anticipation?” Morgana asks. Arthur looks at Merlin and Gwaine, who shrug.

“We can do it now, then. Bow to peer pressure,” Merlin says, standing up. Gwaine stands up too, and eyebrows are raised.

“Right,” Arthur says. He looks around the table - everyone’s staring at them, and he’s wondering just how obvious they’ve been about everything.

“You may have noticed we had some - issues a while back,” Merlin starts, brave as ever.  
There are various mutters of agreement.

“We’ve not been as around as we could have been, and we’re sorry for that,” Merlin says.

“The problem was me,” Gwaine adds, trying for self-depreciating. The crack in his voice gives him away though.

Leon shakes his head, but doesn’t say anything.

“Without going into too much detail - things happened,” Arthur says. “We fell in love.”

“We fell in love with Gwaine,” Merlin clarifies. Jaws drop around the table.

“Sorry - I don’t. Love?” Lance asks, frowning.

“Yeah. Yes,” Arthur says, feeling shaky now it’s out in the open. “We’re in love.”

“It’s been happening for a while. We had to do a lot of research, and a lot of thinking.” Arthur’s feeling shaky with adrenaline, but now it’s out, that’s it. No taking it back. “We’ve decided to give it a go.”

“The three of you?” Lance asks, frowning.

“Like whatsitcalled - poly..?” Elena asks, leaning forward in her chair.

“Polyamory, yeah,” Arthur nods.

“We’re still figuring things out, but we’re pretty happy,” Merlin says, smiling at Arthur and Gwaine.

“So yeah. We can answer questions?” Gwaine offers, “or try to anyway.”

“We’re sorry to throw this on you, but we couldn’t think of a better way to do it,” Merlin says.

There’s a shocked silence.

“I-I’m not sure what to say,” Lance starts.

“It’s not what I was expecting,” Morgana says.

“I don’t think any of us saw this coming,” Merlin says, wryly.

“We knew you’d been having problems but -” Morgana says, looking at Arthur.

“You could’ve told us, sooner,” Gwen says.

“We really needed to get it sorted out ourselves. It nearly didn’t work at all,” Merlin says

“The questions offer is an open one, if you want to go away and think about it,” Arthur says, “we just hope you’ll accept us.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Morgana tuts, standing. She walks around the table and pulls Arthur into a hug. “It’ll take more than that to get rid of me,” she whispers in Arthur’s ear. Arthur laughs and clings to her, feeling tears prick his eyes.

“Thank you,” he whispers back. They disentangle and Morgana goes to hug Merlin and Gwaine.

“So, how does it work?” Lance says, not frowning anymore, but not smiling either.

“The three of us are in a relationship. It’s more logistics, but we’re all equal partners,” Gwaine replies.

“How does it work, with you two already being in a relationship?” Gwen asks.

“How do you mean?”

Gwen frowns, trying to get her words right. “You and Merlin have been together for a few years now. I - it must be awkward, for Gwaine, trying to fit in with all the things you’ve already sorted.”

“Like, just lack of memories together,” Lance jumps in. Gwen nods. “Everyone knows about how you and Merlin got together, and when you moved in together. You don’t have that - bond - with all three of you yet. Do you get jealous, Gwaine?”

“I did have some issues with that. Sometimes I still do,” Gwaine shrugs. “But it’s something I’ve got to accept, and get over.”

“And we’re making memories with Gwaine now, and we’ll carry on doing so. We’re committed to this,” Arthur says, looking at Gwaine.

“Just like that, eh?” Leon asks.

“Something like that,” Gwaine replies, and Arthur reaches out to grasp his hand, feeling a twinge of guilt. Gwaine smiles at him and squeezes Arthur’s fingers.

“Oh,” Elena says softly, drawing everyone’s attention. “That’s sort of cute. If a little, y’know.”

“Nauseating?” Elyan offers. It breaks the tension, as they break into laughter, some of it slightly hysterical.

“Well, if you’re happy, then I’m happy for you,” Lance announces, picking up his drink. He lifts it and toasts them, taking a drink. Morgana and Gwen follow, and soon there’s a makeshift toast.

It takes awhile for everyone to start talking again after that and Arthur is glad they were pressured into serving the food after their news. Gwaine cooked some amazing food, and that carries the conversation until everyone relaxes.

~~~

Leon pulls Gwaine away from the group, when everyone’s starting to clear the table and pull coats on.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Yeah, I do,” Gwaine says, smiling widely.

“I don’t want to see you hurt, if they decide to move on.”

“They won’t. We’ve talked about all this, in fact we are still talking about it. Far more than I’m comfortable with.” Leon snorts a laugh. “We’re good. Thank you. And thanks for listening to me, back at the start of it all.”

“You’re welcome, you know that. Just watch out for yourself, ok?”

“I will,” Gwaine says, smiling. “Thanks, man.”

“You’re welcome.”

~~~

“Leon, hi. Come in,” Arthur steps back, letting Leon in. “This is unexpected.”

“Yeah.” Leon walks in. Arthur looks at Leon - he’s here on a mission, clearly, and not a pleasant one. It’s been a few days since their announcement and Arthur’s stomach clenches as he wonders if the other shoe is finally about to fall.

“Is everything alright?”

“Is Merlin in?” Leon asks, not answering the question.

“Yeah, he’s in the living room,” Arthur says.

“Good, I want to talk to you both.”

“Ok,” Arthur says, slowly, looking at Leon closely. “Is this a ‘hurt my friend, I’ll hurt you’ talk?”

“Sort of,” Leon replies.

“Right,” Arthur says, gesturing towards the living room. Merlin looks up as they walk in.

“Oh, hi, Leon. You ok?”

“Yeah,” Leon says absently, perching on the armchair. Arthur sits next to Merlin, threading his fingers through Merlin’s and ignoring Merlin’s questioning glances.

“Ok, so ... I’m not here to criticise your choices, not least of all because I don’t know enough about it. I am here to ask if you’re sure you know what you’re doing. I know that you’ve all gone through a lot, if what Gwaine went through is any indication.” He grimaced as the they squirmed. “I don’t want to make you feel bad, I just. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

There’s a silence following Leon’s speech, and Leon looks down at his hands, not looking at anyone. Arthur looks at Merlin, who swallows hard.

“We have thought about it,” Merlin starts, quietly. “It’s a risk we’re all willing to take.”

“Like I said, I’m not criticising, you all look happy, really happy,” Leon says, and Arthur and Merlin break out into smiles again. “I’m just trying to look out for everyone.”

“We know, we know you mean well, and we get it. This isn’t some sex-addled plan, this. We’ve worked hard for this,” Merlin says, sitting forward. “We really want this to work - really work. We’re prepared to work as hard as needed to make sure we’re all happy.”

Leon looks at them both and takes a deep breath.

“Ok, alright.” Leon stand up. “I apologise if I’ve offended you.”

“You haven’t,” Arthur says, standing too. “It’s nice to know you’re looking out for us.”

~~~

Questions do come, eventually. The main one, Arthur finds, is about time management.

“We find it hard to make sure we spend quality time together as it is, never mind if there was someone else,” Gwen says, holding Lance’s hand. Arthur smiles and brings up the google calendar on his phone.

“It takes some effort.”

“Oh god, a calendar, Arthur? Really?” Morgana asks, smirking. Arthur is the bigger person, and as such, ignores her.

“Wait, are you telling me Gwaine actually looks at this thing?” Leon asks.

“Yep,” Merlin replies. “And he adds to it, too.”

Leon gapes at Gwaine. “Who are you and what have you done to my friend?”

Gwaine punches Leon on the arm and laughs.

~~~

Merlin smiles as he looks at the calendar, today’s square has two events - ‘Arthur conference’ and ‘Gwaine and Merlin date night’. Arthur had felt a little cheated that they were going on a date when he was hobnobbing with other lawyers and business people, but he also knew that it was a good use of the time. Merlin and Gwaine would be together anyway, they may as well make it an official date at the same time.

Neither of them had anything planned - just a meal then a night spent snuggling on the sofa. They take the tube back, Merlin a little fuzzy headed from the wine he’s drunk.

Merlin stumbles into the flat, and Gwaine steadies him, hands firm at Merlin’s waist. Merlin steps out of his grasp to turn and kiss him. Gwaine cups Merlin’s jaw, pulling him closer. Merlin shoves at Gwaine’s coat until he can slide his hands under Gwaine’s shirt.

Gwaine makes a noise in the back of his throat and pulls back a little.

“Want to move this to the bedroom?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” Merlin replies, shrugging out of his coat. They move to the bedroom, exchanging kisses and tugging at clothing.

Gwaine huffs as he falls back onto the bed, and Merlin straddles his legs. He grinds down, gasping as arousal sparks up his spine.

Merlin keeps expecting to feel another set of hands, hear Arthur’s low murmuring. He mentally shakes himself and kisses Gwaine, humming as Gwaine’s hands skim his chest to settle on his hips. The slide together slowly, kissing and sharing increasingly ragged breath.

Merlin’s panting by the time he shoves his hand between them and wrapping his hand around both of them. It takes a handful of strokes to push them over the edge, Merlin gasping out Gwaine’s name as he comes, shuddering with it.

Merlin collapses next to Gwaine. They lie for a while, panting at the ceiling. Merlin moves to rest his head on Gwaine’s shoulder.

“I’ll get a cloth soon,” he murmurs. Gwaine says something in response that Merlin can’t catch.

“If Arthur is here we could make him get up,” Gwaine says eventually.

“Hmm,” Merlin replies. “I kept expecting Arthur to appear somewhere.”

“Me too. I think this relationship has ruined me for two person sex. Not that I didn’t enjoy it,” Gwaine adds.

“I know what you mean,” Merlin says, reaching up for another kiss. “Love you,” he says, getting up to get a cloth before he falls asleep.

“Love you,” Gwaine replies, smiling softly.

~~~

Gwaine bounces on his feet a bit as he waits to be let in. Autumn is definitely shaping up cold, he thinks. He fantasises about beaches and warm oceans and is wondering if he can convince Arthur and Merlin to take a holiday somewhere nice when the door opens.

“Hi,” Merlin says, letting him in. Gwaine takes of his coat and hangs it up. “Got you something,” Merlin says as he kisses Gwaine.

“Oh, a present?” Gwaine asks, tugging Merlin closer.

“Sort of,” Merlin says, shrugging.

“Where is it?”

“Living room.” Merlin leads the way. He picks something up from the coffee table before Gwaine can see. Arthur raises an eyebrow at him, then smiles at Gwaine.

“Well? Come on, don’t keep me in suspense!”

“It’s nothing, really,” Merlin says, pressing something into Gwaine’s hand. He opens it and there’s a key there.

Gwaine pulls Merlin into a hug, hand clenched around the key. He knows it’s something that makes sense, and it’s practical - he spends a lot of time waiting for Arthur or Merlin to let him in - but it’s also a symbol, an open invitation.

“Thank you,” Gwaine says, threading the key onto his keyring.

“Should’ve got one cut ages ago,” Merlin replies, shrugging. “I mean, you could just move in, you’re already halfway there. Seems pointless paying rent on your place just to use it as storage.”

“It’s certainly something to think about," Arthur says.

“I’ve got a while left on the lease yet, so maybe when that’s up?”

Arthur and Merlin nod, smiling.

“You’re getting good at this deadline thing,” Arthur teases, standing to join them.

“Had a good teacher,” Gwaine says, leaning forward for a kiss.

“You did,” Arthur replies. 

“You’re entirely too smug about that,” Merlin points out.

“I’m allowed to be, we’ve managed to get this to work, haven’t we? We should be proud of ourselves,” Arthur says.

“We should,” Merlin says. “It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close.”

“We deserve a treat. Tell me, how do you two feel about a holiday?” Gwaine asks.

~~~

It is hard, managing it all, and there’s more compromise. Gwaine learns to manage his time efficiently, Arthur has to try to keep himself from getting too frustrated at the last minute changes that sometimes happen, and Merlin acts as a pretty decent negotiator, understanding where both sides are coming from. That doesn’t stop him from declaring that both of them are being stupid and leaving them to it on occasion.

Slowly but surely it becomes second nature to make time for each other and, most importantly, being open and honest. Gwaine fits in the space that Merlin and Arthur made for him, until there isn’t a gap anymore.


	2. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An epilogue, set some time in the future. 
> 
> ETA. I've tried to get the link to the ball of nothing to work, but I can't, so I'm putting it here: http://howthehelldidienduphere.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/nothing_main.jpg. HTML hates me apparently

“I’m not sure this flat is big enough for me to move in,” Gwaine says, looking around for a place to put the book he’s just finished. “This is not a three person flat.”

Arthur comes to stand next to him, looking at the bookcase.

“There isn’t any room, Arthur. Frowning at it is not going to make it so,” Gwaine says.

“You’re right,” Arthur says slowly. Gwaine looks at him.

“Oh god, you’re planning, aren’t you?”

“Hmm,” Arthur replies absently, before walking away.

“Right,” Gwaine says. “I’ll just put the book on the coffee table for now, shall I?”

~~~

“Ok, so, there’s something I want to discuss,” Arthur announces one night. Merlin sits up straighter, heart skipping a beat.

“Ok,” Gwaine says.

“It’s nothing bad, just, something I’ve been considering.”

“Which is?”

“We should look at getting a house together,” Arthur says. Merlin almost collapses with relief.

“I thought it was something bad!” He says. Gwaine nods next to him. “Idiot.”

“It’s a big thing! We should discuss it,” Arthur says.

“You know, I was so happy when you started to get behind this discussion thing. Now I wonder if I’ve created a monster,” Merlin muses. Arthur pointedly ignores him and launches into planning mode.

“I mean, it’s a big commitment - if we decide to buy one.”

“We may as well go all in,” Gwaine says, shrugging. “We can look, at least, see if there’s anything we like the look of.”

The three of them start looking for places to live. First they vaguely scan estate agent websites, looking at houses in the area, just to get a feel of what’s available. Then Arthur decides that they need to make a list of what they want from a house - how many rooms, gardens, things like that.

They decide on at least two bedrooms - they have a lot of stuff between them, and Gwaine’s dream house would have a room he can use as a dark room - and one needs to be big enough for a king-sized bed. None of them are green-fingered enough to want a garden, but a patio out back for barbecues would be nice.

They then start looking in earnest, sending emails back and forth with possibilities. Arthur gets so confused he sits down on evening and makes a spreadsheet with columns for number of bedrooms, whether it has a garden, the distance from their respective workplaces, marks out of ten for current decoration (it changed to include minus figures for the one house that had a mustard yellow bathroom set).

The book a week off their respective works and organise viewings. Occasionally they get a raised eyebrow at the three of them looking at houses - looking at two-bedroomed properties sort of gives the game away, although no one comments outright. Some of the people showing them around stumble over their words when it comes to talking about bedrooms and the three of them almost pull something not laughing.

One agent obviously disapproves - something in the way things are worded and looks that are shot their way - and they decide to cross that one off their list. It wasn’t the most amazing house anyway, and they’re quite happy to lose it if it means that they’re not giving their business to someone intolerant.

Of course, they all fall in love with different places. Merlin adores the house that has a huge living/dining room, with french windows that lead out onto a old wood patio with a swing seat. It’s full of natural light, and the large windows face east, and so the room blazes with the falling sun.  
Arthur prefers the old style townhouse with high ceilings and distressed wood fittings in the kitchen. It even has a proper fireplace, with a wood burner, which he knows is completely impractical, but he loves the idea of never the less.

Gwaine is pushing for the house with the huge bathroom, with a bath that has jacuzzi jets. Given that’s the only reason he wants the house he’s fairly easy to sway under the promise they’ll buy a big bath, just for him.

After many discussions, planning, and spats, they decide on Arthur’s choice, the lure of the wood burner is too much to resist. Merlin is disappointed that it won’t involve Arthur chopping wood topless. Arthur worries about Merlin’s lumberjack fantasies, especially given his love of all things Monty Python.

~~~

It’s when they’re trying to set up a mortgage that the question of finances and legality in general comes up. Arthur’s already researched how to handle actually buying the house together, he’s made notes, much to the amusement of his two partners (lovers? Boyfriends? Arthur has no idea how to refer to them in a way that doesn’t sound like their fifteen or running a business together), in the same book that they wrote in when they were figuring the relationship out. It just makes sense to continue the tradition.

“So, how are we going to pay the bills?” Gwaine asks. Arthur frowns. At the moment it’s all a bit relaxed - Gwaine buys food but he’s still not officially living there, so they never really bothered to set anything up. They need to settle on something more permanent.

“Joint account? Set up the bill so the payment comes from the joint account, we all put our share into there?” Arthur suggests.

“Can you have joint account in three people’s names?” Merlin asks.

“I can’t see why not? We’ll have to look.” Arthur says, making a note. “We can put the house in all our names, although one option needs us to write wills…” Arthur looks up to two confused stares. “If one of us dies, their share of the house goes to next of kin unless stated otherwise in a will.”

“I don’t like the idea of wills - who would want my tat anyway?” Merlin asks.

“I didn’t even know half the crap I own, never mind know who I’d want to give it to when I die.”  
Gwaine adds, looking up from his laptop.

“You don’t have to be specific, it’s not like you need to decide who gets which DVD. It’s a good idea though - making a will,” Arthur muses. “I could help you both - or Lance could, if you’d feel more comfortable.”

“Jesus, you’re serious?” Gwaine asks.

“If we’re going to do this, we should do it properly.” Arthur says, hotly. He knows his need for things to be done correctly often annoys the other two, or is at least something they mock him for, but this is important, and he wishes they’d take some things more seriously. 

“We’re buying a house together, a will shouldn’t be out there at this point. If we’re thinking about sorting out a joint bank account for bills, we could even look at power of attorney - we won’t be able to get the same rights as married people when it comes to hospital visits but-”

“Woah, woah, power of attorney? Hospital visits? Arthur -” Gwaine interrupts, holding his hands up.

Arthur runs his hand through his hair. “Look, this stuff - it’s important. I know you’re thinking that I’m being a control freak, and, and over-reacting. But this means that we’re as close to official - legally official - as we can get. Its security, knowing that we don’t have to worry about this. It’s going to be hard enough being open about this, if the legal side of things is all intact, it’s one less thing to worry about-”

Merlin comes and puts his hands on Arthur’s shoulder, hushing him kindly, kissing him on the forehead.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realise this was so important to you,” Gwaine says, closing his laptop and leaning forward to place his hand on Arthur’s arm.

“We’ll do it, of course we will,” Merlin says, looking at Gwaine. Gwaine nods and shifts his chair  
closer to Arthur’s, pulling him into a kiss.

“Thank you,” Arthur sighs, relaxing a bit. “I’m not exactly excited about the idea of being buried in paperwork outside of work either, but once it’s done we don’t have to think about it again.”

“We’ll do it,” Gwaine says again. “I like the idea of us being almost official.”

~~~

Obviously it’s Morgana who decides that they need some kind of ceremony.

“But - it won’t be legal!” Arthur says, visions of Morgana forcing him into suit fittings and rehearsal breakfasts running through his head. Although he wouldn’t say no to seeing Merlin and Gwaine in decent suits.

“Good excuse for a party, though,” Leon points out.

“Because we haven’t had a house warming party recently or anything,” Arthur replies, rolling his eyes. He looks at Merlin and Gwaine, who look like - they’re considering it.

“We could use it to do the final signing of some of the paperwork - you said yourself that it’s as close as we’re going to get,” Merlin says, quietly.

“We may as well celebrate it - something to look forward to while we’re divvying up our belongings in the event of our death, and deciding who’s going to pull the plug in the case of coma,” Gwaine says, and Arthur wants to roll his eyes again. Gwaine is making a huge fuss over the paperwork, considering he’s self-employed. Arthur does not envy Gwaine’s accountant, and no amount of puppydog eyes is going to get Arthur to help Gwaine come the end of the financial year.

Arthur snorts and shakes his head. He looks at them both, Merlin’s grinning widely and Arthur can already see him joining up with Morgana to do evil things. Gwaine is bringing out the aforementioned puppydog eyes. Arthur is struck by how this is his reality now, these two ridiculous men who he loves beyond reason, and yeah, ok, maybe a ceremony to officially announce their commitment is something they should do.

“Fine, fine, ok,” Arthur acquiesces. Merlin and Gwaine grin at him.


	3. Extra/Snippet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a porny snippet that didn't fit into my re-write, that I didn't have the heart to lose.

The night of Arthur’s birthday, they all go for a meal at Arthur’s favourite restaurant. They all squeeze around a table, and the waiter visibly deflates when he clocks Leon and Percy. Arthur can’t wait to see the look on his face when he sees how Lance can pack it away.

Eventually they manage to order - after Leon and Morgana have fought over whether Morgana having something ridiculously spicy means she won’t get kissed tonight, and Lance and Merlin have had a quiet but vicious battle over bread sticks. It takes two members of staff to bring the drinks and extra bread sticks.

"Happy birthday, brother,” She pushes a garishly-wrapped box and a card over to Arthur. The other’s add to the pile, parcels of red and blue piling onto the table.

“You didn’t have to-”

“Shut up and open them!” Lance hollers, drawing laughs from all of them. Arthur nods and opens them all, trying not to knock drinks flying as he rips the paper.

After they presents have all been opened - and Arthur’s going to get revenge for that [ball of nothing](http://howthehelldidienduphere.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/nothing_main.jpg), because, seriously, what? - they clear the table to make room for food. They share a wonderful meal, as always, and even splash out on pudding. Merlin and Gwaine don’t have a second drink and Merlin nudges him under the table when Arthur is offered another drink. He shakes his head, mutters something about driving. Lance raises an eyebrow, and Arthur gives a little shrug. Lance wisely says nothing, just nods.

At the end of the meal Arthur tries to put towards the bill but is shouted down by everyone, and so shuts up, but not without pouting a little, for show. After the bill has been settled they all part ways, moving back to their cars.

Arthur is warm and full as Gwaine drives them all back to the flat. Arthur is pretty sure Merlin and Gwaine have something planned, given Merlin’s nudge earlier. They want him alert and sober. They pull into the car park and get out of the car, shuddering in the sudden cold. Gwaine and Merlin keep looking at each other in the lift, and there’s a tension between them that Arthur can feel. He’s wondering what the pair of them have got planned and wondering if he needs to be worried.

They finally get into the flat, locking the door behind them.

“It’s time for your last present.” Merlin says coyly.

“Another present?”

“A joint one,” Gwaine says, smirking at Merlin, and Arthur knows he’s going to enjoy this.

“Assuming you’re not too tired?”

“I’m suddenly feeling very awake.” Arthur replies, perking up.

“Good. Come with us.” Gwaine takes Arthur’s hand and leads him to the bedroom, Merlin following behind them.

“We know you’re a control freak.”

“I’m not!”

“Yes you are. Don’t worry, it’s sexy.” Merlin says, and Arthur can’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of him.

“Point is. Control freak. Also a bit of a voyeur, so. We thought you’d enjoy directing in the bedroom.”

Arthur frowns in thought, not sure what the pair of them are going on about. Directing in the bedroom?

“What Gwaine is trying to say is. You sit here.” Merlin goes to stand by the mostly-for-show wingback chair in the corner of the bedroom. “We’ll be over there,” He gestures to the bed. “And Gwaine and I will do whatever you want us to do.”

“To each other, hence the voyeur bit.” Gwaine adds.

Arthur can feel his eyes widen as the full implications of what they’re proposing hits him. The two of them, acting solely on his whims and he gets a prime view. Close enough to hear them, far enough away that he can see the whole thing, and so he can control himself. His dick gives a twitch, slowly hardening in his trousers.

“Yeah, ok.”

Merlin and Gwaine break out into wide grins, and start stripping.

~~~

Arthur sits on the chair, squirming at the feeling of the fabric against his bare skin.

Gwaine and Merlin are naked too, sitting on the bed. Merlin had a small smile on his face - amused mostly, with a tinge of fondness.

Arthur wets his lips and takes a breath.

“Kiss,” he says hoarsely. Gwaine raises his eyebrows and obliges, pulling Merlin into a kiss. Merlin makes a soft noise in the back of his throat and wraps a hand around Gwaine’s neck.

They shift on the bed, and Arthur can see them both clearly now as they make the kiss filthy, tongues meeting in the space between their mouths. Arthur’s cock twitches and fills. He wraps a hand around it and tugs lazily.

“Lie down, Gwaine on top.” Gwaine pushes Merlin down and straddles him, groaning as their erections brush. Merlin tries to thrust up against Gwaine. “No,” Arthur says, “patience.” Merlin snorts but stops. “Good.” Arthur shifts again, still feeling a little awkward. He’s hoping Gwaine will do a bit of interpretation here.

Two sets of eyes are looking expectantly at him, and that’s hot. That they’re waiting - actually doing what they’re told - that’s enough to make Arthur’s blood thrum in his veins.

“Kiss Merlin, everywhere.”

Gwaine smirks and leans down to kiss Merlin, bypassing his mouth, instead starting at Merlin’s jawline. Merlin squirms then tilts his head, exposing more of his neck to Gwaine’s ministrations. Arthur can see the long expanse of Merlin’s pale skin, left rubbed red from Gwaine’s stubble as Gwaine moves lower to Merlin’s chest.

“Bite his nipples.”

Arthur cups his balls, shivering as they warmed under his palm. He tugs them gently as he watches Merlin arch and twist under Gwaine’s teeth. Gwaine leaves Merlin’s nipples red and raised, and Merlin gasps underneath him.

Gwaine is level with Merlin’s erection now, and he pauses. Arthur is tingling with anticipation, wanting to see Gwaine take Merlin apart completely. Gwaine’s face is mostly covered by his hair, and Arthur sinks down in the chair a bit to try and get a better view.

Merlin notices and threads his fingers through Gwaine’s hair, holding it up. Arthur makes a satisfied noise and settles one more. The stillness stretches as Gwaine continues to hover over Merlin’s crotch. Merlin thrusts up, slick cock head bumping against Gwaine’s mouth.

“Wait, Arthur hasn’t told us what to do yet.” Gwaine says, voice low and scratchy.

“Fuck,” Merlin mutters, arching his back.

“I want-” Arthur stops and clears his throat. “I want you to suck him, Gwaine. Do it.”  
Gwaine groans and lowers himself, sucking the head of Merlin’s erection into his mouth. Merlin gasps and tightens his fingers in Gwaine’s hair.

Arthur swears and strokes his cock, shuddering as he fights to keep his eyes open. Gwaine has his eyes closed and his cheeks are hollow as he sucks on Merlin’s cock. It’s one of the sexiest things he’s ever seen - like the hottest porn, only just for him.

“Not too much, don’t make him come yet.”

Gwaine pulls off with a filthy slurp and proceeds to lick messily up and down the shaft. Merlin groans loudly, face and chest flushed with arousal.

Arthur is leaking steadily now, and he rubs at the head of his cock with his thumb. He’s panting, and he can feel sweat running down the side of his face.

Gwaine is swallowing Merlin down again, almost to the point of choking. Arthur can see the muscles of his throat working, and the muscles in his back shifting as he arches. Arthur realises that Gwaine is grinding against the bed. The urge to get out of the chair and to touch and taste is almost overwhelming, but Arthur steels himself to watch.

“Please,” Merlin begs.

Merlin’s wrecked. His thighs are shuddering and he’s tugging on Gwaine’s hair. His head is thrown back and he’s pleading and cursing in turns. He’s close, Arthur realises, watching Merlin’s hips move is desperate little thrusts.

“Ok, ok, make him come.”

It doesn’t take much, Gwaine bobs his head, not teasing at all now. Merlin’s muscles tighten then relax as he comes with a stuttering cry. Gwaine swallows Merlin’s come without breaking his stride, pulling off to pant against Merlin’s thigh.

“Fuck,” Arthur mutters, feeling his spine tingling with his imminent orgasm. He can hear Merlin panting something at Gwaine, tugging him up the bed to straddle his chest.

Gwaine groans roughly, fisting his cock. Merlin’s smiling lazily up at him, hands stroking Gwaine’s thighs. Gwaine grunts and comes all over Merlin’s face, painting his cheekbones. And that’s one of the hottest things Arthur’s seen, and it’s more than enough to push him over the edge.

“Oh, fuck.” Arthur swears again, closing his eyes and coming all over his hand. “Fuck,” he pants as he shudders through the aftershocks.

When Arthur comes back to, Gwaine is lying next to Merlin, thumbing Merlin’s cheekbones, smearing the fluid there. Merlin squirms and frowns. Gwaine huffs a laugh and grabs the towel off the floor to wipe Merlin clean. Arthur looks at his own hand and reaches across to pick up a shirt and uses that to wipe himself.

“You coming to join us?” Merlin asks, holding his hand out. Arthur gets up on shaky legs and stumbles across to the bed, falling on to it. He arranges himself so he’s lying next to Merlin. “You enjoy that, then?”

“Mmm,” Arthur replies lazily, happy to just doze for a minute or two. Merlin huffs a laugh and kisses him.

“Happy birthday,” Gwaine murmurs, and Arthur can feel a hand stroking at his hip.

“Can’t wait to see my Christmas present.”


End file.
